• I AM aware, as Richard Lewis rightly points out, that it is legal for a driver to use a hands-free phone (The law is right, drivers can use hands-free phones, June 16). My point was that it should be illegal to use any form of mobile phone in a vehicle.

You can still be distracted while using a hands-free phone. The reason I put up the suggestion that drivers, if caught using a mobile phone, should get an immediate 12-month ban from driving is that it would bring penalties in line with people caught drinking and driving.

We don’t get letters bewailing that poor Ted “got caught drunk driving” and got a ban, so why should being caught using a mobile phone while driving be treated any differently?

If people think I am being harsh, perhaps they can learn a lesson from what happened to the father-in-law of a cousin of mine. He is a paramedic and was in an ambulance with a colleague when a truck pulled out from a side road into the ambulance.

The father-in-law escaped with his life. Unfortunately, his companion was killed. The reason was that the truck driver was on his phone. The driver is doing time, but it is no consolation to the widow and family of the dead medic.

The present penalties of fines and points on your licence are just a slap on the wrist. Just ask any traffic police officer how many times a day they pull people over for using a phone while driving and they will probably say: “Too many”.

JE KIRBY
Clissold Crescent, N16