Two years in jail for drivers on the phone

Drivers could be jailed for up to two years for using a mobile phone while at the wheel, under new guidelines to be published by the Crown Prosecution Service today.

The new measures mean that using a hand-held phone (talking or texting) while at the wheel will be treated as dangerous driving, rather than careless driving and so liable for a greater punishment. Charges of manslaughter, rather than causing death by dangerous driving, can also be applied, again attracting greater sentences - up to life in prison in the most extreme cases.