Drive Dynamics - More than 500,000 motorists are STILL driving while using their mobile phones and the numbers are increasing

More than 500,000 motorists are still using their mobile phones while driving each day, according to shocking new figures.
And the number of phone-related crashes is rising despite dozens of deaths being caused each year by drivers using handheld devices.
Drivers aged under 30 are the biggest culprits with more than one in 20 (5.2 per cent) being caught flouting the law, the study found.
The research revealed that using a handheld device is more distracting than alcohol or drugs, with drivers twice as likely to have their head down and eyes off the road while texting or using the internet.
Campaigners today urged ministers to impose tougher penalties and boost traffic police numbers, which have suffered a 23 per cent cut over the last five years.
Edmund King, AA president, said: 'The only way to counter the addiction to mobiles is to have more cops in cars and for employers to take their duty of care more seriously. If not they could face corporate manslaughter.'
He said a 'hardcore' number of drivers 'still believe there is nothing wrong with their behaviour' and are putting lives at risk.
Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said the figures were 'a worry'.
He added: 'In 2013 the use of a mobile at the wheel was a factor in 22 fatal accidents and this is likely to be underreporting of the true figure.

'Texting whilst driving impairs reactions more than being at the drink-drive limit.'
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.
Some two thirds of those observed breaking the law (1.1 per cent) last year had the phone in their hand rather than held to their ear – suggesting that they were using it to text or check the internet.
Van drivers were found to be the worst offenders at nearly double the rate of offending (2.7 per cent) compared to car drivers (1.4 per cent) and lorry drivers (1.2 per cent).
The research found that the ‘majority of van drivers were using the phone in their hand rather than holding it to their ear’.
Men were found to be the most likely sex to use a hand-held phone while at the wheel for texting or speaking.
However, women were deemed to be those most likely to phone when stopped at traffic lights or in traffic jam.
Bus, coach and minibus drivers had the lowest rate of mobile phone use, with just 0.4 per cent seen using a hand-held phone at the wheel.
Drivers aged between 17-years-old and 29-years-old were found to be the most likely to use a hand held-phone, while those aged 60 or over were the least likely.
Drivers were more than twice as likely to use a mobile if driving alone (2.7 per cent) than if they had a passenger (1.2 per cent), the study found.
The new data shows that while there have been drops in mobile phone use following earlier crackdowns - such as new legislation and a £30 fine in 2004 and a higher £60 fine and three penalty points in 2007 – that these were generally followed by a spike in usage.
The report noted that 'after these immediate drops the proportion using a hand-held mobile phone increased again.'
The imposition in 2013 of the higher and current £100 fine plus points appears to have made no discernable difference and has failed to halt the rise.

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