Thread by @markandcharlie

Right mobile phone offences, it's going to get a lot of attention this week, & rightly so, cognitive distraction/fail to look properly is the largest causational factor of RTCs in the UK. But let's look at the facets of the changes no one else will look at
commonslibrary.parliament.uk/changes-in-the…

Firstly this isn't the first time we've been here, this blog covers what happened when the penalty was last increased, we will see more of the same, remember all that happened was we were put almost into a state of "Stasis" by the Baretto judgement, which
trafficwmp.wordpress.com/2017/06/20/pho…

will be irrelevant after the 25th, but what Baretto did do was improve evidential standards to the point where most detected offences became 💯%ers in court, this standard of evidence will see nearly all of the offences detected from the 25th meeting the evidential threshold for

prosecution. The usual disposal of 6 points and £200 fine hits offenders hard, some habitual offenders will find themselves facing disqualification within a week as multiple offences get detected before their first NIP gets through their letterbox.

As for enforcement apart from some media work, and specialist high level enforcement operations such as #OpTramline & #OpTopDeck not much will change in the policing. Even #OpTopDeck can just be covered by Neighbourhood officers using buses to get around their patch with the

added value that #OpTopDeck in this fashion brings regards reassurance on public transport 👍 #3rdpartyreporting will form the crux of the enforcement, the evidence is excellent, it reduces police demand and is by far the most effective form of enforcement regards behaviour

change. By utilising #3rdpartyreporting for your primary source of detecting mobile phone offences it frees up resources for the other #Fatal4 offences (speed, seatbelt & drink/drug driving) which require officer detection.
Some forces will still offer courses for some first

offences, especially if it is an offence in stationary traffic. I'm not at all against this, but as I said earlier some habitual offenders will see themselves getting a course, then 6 points, then 12 and a disqualification within weeks.

As for those tapping away like crazy at phones in cradles or having a facetime conversation or the like with a cradled phone an evidential video must show enough distraction to evidence a #S3RTA1988 offence, not in proper control offence or moving image in view of a driver 👍

Regards #3rdpartyreporting videos just get enough to evidence the interaction with the phone, no need to get close or offer an opinion to the driver, no point in inviting confrontation 👍 Don't forget that the lie will change from "I wasn't using it" to "it wasn't a phone" or I

was just moving it, so make sure any submissions will negate this defence. As everyone will be talking about phone offences all week I'm going to do something on seatbelts and the most effective types of traffic enforcement later in the week for a change 😉

Safe Journeys all 👍