Clampdown on driving with handheld phones

Last year, police handled 373 cases about driving with handheld electronic devices.

In 2018, this number was 432. In 2019, it was 247 and so far this year, it is 263.

These figures come from the Faroese Road Safety Council (Ráðið fyri ferðslutrygd), which today launched a campaign against careless driving.

As part of the campaign, police will be allocating extra resources on monitoring mobile phone use on the roads over the next three weeks.

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With the current regulations, drivers caught driving while using a handheld device are fined DKK 1,000.

But the Road Safety Council is calling for a harsher penalty, either a heavier fine or penalty points.

In a recent traffic safety survey, 47 percent of respondents said that carelessness was the main cause of traffic accidents. Only speeding was believed to be a more common cause.

The same survey revealed that one in five respondents regularly drive while using a mobile phone.

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

More Faroese News in English.