No 'silver bullet' to tackling dangerous driving, claims Cambridgeshire police chief
Almost a quarter of drivers in our region made or received phone calls at the wheel
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough's police and crime commissioner believes there's no one answer to tackling dangerous driving.
The RAC's 2024 Report on Motoring found in the East of England, 23% of drivers make or receive a phone call while at the wheel.
Seven per cent of drivers in the region use apps such as to text, email or post on social media while the same percentage take a photo or record a video, according to the report.
Darryl Preston thinks there are ways to tackle the problem.
"Yes we can have better designed roads; I think as vehicles move on with technology, that will decrease the number of injuries and deaths we have on our roads and there's enforcement, but I don't think any one of those are a silver bullet," he said.
"What I think we need to do is make dangerous driving, drink driving, drug driving, the factors that increase road collisions, morally unacceptable."
Taking and making phone calls highest in eight years
Nationally, the proportion of young drivers illegally making and receiving phone calls behind the wheel without hands-free technology is at its highest rate in eight years according to RAC data.
More than half of drivers under 25 admitted to making and receiving voice calls behind the wheel in the UK, compared to 27% of the overall driving population and just 16% of those aged 65 or older, up six percentage points on 2023.
In 2024, eight per cent of drivers in the UK admitted to taking photos and/or recorded videos done so in the past 12 months, up from 5% in both 2023 and 2022.
The findings come 21 years after the Government first made it an offence to use a handheld mobile phone or similar device while driving.
'More education' for drivers
Department for Transport (DfT) data showed in the county, 428 people were killed or seriously injured on roads last year, a fall on the year before.
Mr Preston has made improving road safety in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough a priority in his police and crime plan for 2025-28.
"There needs to be more education around the consequences of driving dangerously; most road traffic collisions are avoidable and they're avoidable if people drive with care," he added.
"We have a Vision Zero Partnership and have seen a slight reduction in people killed or seriously injured, but there are still far too many people on our roads who are victims of serious injury and fatality."