THE Echo’s excellent story (Get Off Your Phones, Nov 4) only highlighted the offence of using a mobile phone and not the wider problem of road safety.

Just send your cameraman out onto the roads and clock how many are driving around drinking hot coffee or eating burgers and other fast food. Go near building supply centres that nowadays seem to have coffee machines or burger bars in store or in the car park and see how many tradesman at rush hour in the morning are driving around eating, drinking and talking on their mobiles.

Why on earth didn’t they have breakfast before they left home? Park up near a McDonald’s and see the number drinking hot coffee whilst they leave in heavy traffic.

No one is telling me that it is safe to drive whilst drinking a hot beverage or eating burgers.

Whilst I certainly don’t support handheld mobile phone use in any circumstances whilst driving (not even to call the emergency services which is permitted by law, strangely).

There is no way a driver can brake, change gear or take avoiding action whilst drinking or eating with the same reaction time as that of a driver in full control of their vehicle doing the task in hand ‘driving it’. There is probably less than 1 in a 100 who would throw coffee over their car or passengers, whereas a mobile can at least be thrown on the floor faster.

Anyone driving whilst drinking and eating are technically not in full charge of their motor vehicle and lack due care and attention.

It is high time that the Press, police, council’s granting extensions to garage pay kiosks for fast food etc to highlight these dangers and reduce the dangers on our roads. It seems to be a ‘British Gimmick and Obsession’ to have to constantly drink. If a driver needs to drink or eat etc, pull in and do so. There is absolutely no excuse for this behaviour on today’s already overcrowded roads.

The newspapers and internet were full of the case of the lorry driver sentenced to a ten-year prison sentence for killing four innocent people on the A34 near Newbury whilst using a mobile phone.

The doubling of points and fine early in 2017 goes some way to hopefully deter this common offence, but there needs to a mandatory ban of at least six months under totting up for repeat offenders regardless of their circumstances and pleading for leniency. There needs to be nationwide policy for the police to seek information from the mobile phone provider of call activity of drivers around the time of the incident when called to any RTC and also powers to seize the phone and the SIM and stored data on iCloud cleared when offences are proved.

Len Vickery Address supplied