Taking mobiles out of the hands of drivers - who agrees with the government?

This week's announcement by the government that it plans to make driving "while using a handheld mobile phone" a specific offence has seen silicon.com's virtual mailbag bulging overnight.

Road Safety Minister David Jamieson is leading the crack down against drivers who speak into their handsets or text message in their cars while at the wheel. From 1 December doing so is likely to become a points-on-the-licence offence and fines will vary from £30 to £1,000 should prosecutions go to court.

Most readers strongly agreed with the move, many citing near-death experiences on the roads because of the actions of distracted drivers.

"No exceptions, no excuses, it's dangerous," said reader Tony Carey. However, he added: "How they're going to enforce it is another matter given they'd rather spend money on speed cameras than policemen."

While hands-free sets - nowadays increasingly connected to mobile handsets via Bluetooth wireless - aren't explicitly banned by the proposed legislation, the government statement went on to say: "Hands-free calls are also distracting and drivers should be aware that they still risk prosecution for failing to have proper control of their vehicle, for careless or even reckless driving if use of a phone affects their driving in this way."

Mobile operator O2 was quick to issue a response to the Jamieson statement. One of its points was: "Only ever make or take a hands-free call when you are certain it is completely safe to do so."

Some readers felt current law, covering driving without due care and attention, is sufficient. Wayne Moore from North Yorkshire told us: "I think we already have strong enough laws to cover dangerous driving and can't see why we need a specific mobile phone law. What about a 'fumbling through the glove box for your cigarette lighter law'? Or an 'opening your chewing gum' law? It's pathetic."

And others made the jump to other activities that commonly go unchecked in cars. IT support manager Chalky White at Barkers told us: "Clearly people are capable of driving while doing other things. If this were not the case, we would not have radios in our vehicles. Nor would there be cigarette lighters - having seen the driver of a car I was passenger in dropping lit ash in his groin area this appears far more dangerous than mobile phones."

The question silicon.com asked was whether there are instances that justify driving "with a mobile phone to your ear" - in other words, not using hands-free - and one or two of you came up with scenarios.

Jon Cotterell wrote: "What about stopped at traffic lights [but] legally still driving! What about sat in the car having become inebriated, calling for a cab?"

Others wondered whether police would exercise judgement in making exceptions. Reader Brian Catt said: "[The] question is will the police do this right and pick out the dangerous ones for prosecution rather than the Mum whose kid calls her on the way to a school pick up and pulls over to take the call after answering? As ever I bet the police will yet again take every opportunity to make performance targets at the expense of the easiest to target members of the public and ignore the hard to catch real offenders."

Perhaps the final word should go to Tony Pearce, who described himself as a 'Hands-free kit user': "If drivers want to take their phone into their cars they should be sensible enough to take a hands free kit with it. People drove cars on our roads for the best part of 100 years without needing to talk to someone who was not sat in the car with them."

What do you think? Is this a case of excessive legislation or has the problem become so bad that something has to be done? What role can operators and handset makers play and will people obey any new law. Let us know by emailing editorial@silicon.com.