Most drivers will welcome increased fixed penalty fines for those using hand-held mobile phones at the wheel.
The Department for Transport is considering raising the present £60 fine to £90 or even possibly £100.
An AA/Populus survey of nearly 21,000 drivers published today shows that 74% have seen others using mobile phones on some or most journeys, with 25% seeing the practice on every journey.
A total of 58% said they had never used a hand-held phone in the car but, of the 42% that have used a phone, 60% said it distracted them.
Around 20% admitted having used a mobile phone to send a text while driving and 4% admitted to checking emails and 2% to sending emails on the move.
Also, 2% have read Twitter or Facebook updates and 1% have tweeted while at the wheel.
AA president Edmund King said: "This epidemic of hand-held mobile phone use while driving has already cost lives, and our members are demanding action. An increase in the standard motoring fixed-penalty fine will help deter those who commit motoring offences including mobile phone use."
He said it was imperative that targeted police enforcement campaigns help to reinforce the message and that AA members broadly support an increase in the level of the fixed penalty.
He added: "Our members also fully support education, so for some offenders an awareness course may be all they need to persuade them to comply with the law in future.
"It is worrying that the equivalent of six million drivers even admit to texting on the move. Action must be taken to stop these talking, texting, tweeting drivers."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article