article_snippet: Suzette Davenport said tougher sanctions are needed for those caught making calls, sending texts and checking emails while driving .
article_snippet: DRIVERS who use mobile phones at the wheel should be banned from the roads, Britain’s top traffic officer said yesterday.
article_snippet: The Gloucestershire chief constable said the absence of proper penalties risked making it socially acceptable to text or surf the internet while driving.
article_snippet: The offence of using a hand-held mobile at the wheel currently attracts only a £100 fine with three penalty points.
article_snippet: Suzette Davenport said: ‘If someone is caught twice using a mobile phone within a period of time we should be considering things like disqualifications.
article_snippet: ’ Miss Davenport, who speaks on road issues for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said drivers repeatedly glancing at drivers smartphones were effectively using a computer.
article_snippet: Some 1.6 per cent of Britain's estimated 36million drivers were spotted using a handheld phone while at the wheel last year – up on 1.4 per cent for a similar exercise carried out five years earlier in 2009 .
article_snippet: Research shows that the distraction effect of using a mobile phone is worse than being over the limit on drink or drugs.
article_snippet: Edmund King of the AA said: ‘Basically we need more cops in cars to target the mobile phone abusers that we observe behind the wheel on most journeys.
article_snippet: Under the existing law the existing law is illegal to use a phone while driving, even when stopped at traffic lights or queuing in traffic.
article_snippet: The research revealed that using a handheld device is more distracting than alcohol or drugs, with drivers twice as likely to have drivers head down and eyes off the road while texting or using the internet.
article_snippet: Some 1.6 per cent of Britain's estimated 36million drivers were spotted using a handheld phone while at the wheel last year – up on 1.4 per cent for a similar exercise carried out five years earlier in 2009.
article_snippet: last year had the phone in their hand rather than held to their ear – suggesting that their were using their ear to text or check the internet.
highlights_snippet: Suzette Davenport calls for prison terms for using a phone while driving .
  
highlights_snippet: Smartphones mean Smartphones is 'effectively using a computer on