More than two in five young motorists admit they have used a mobile phone whilst driving, a survey has found.
A poll was conducted by the insurance company Swinton which questioned 2,900 drivers aged between 17 and 25 years old.
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Just fewer than 43 per cent of those surveyed revealed they had made or answered a call or text whilst driving. More worryingly, 12 per cent of the young drivers surveyed did not consider this particular practice to be dangerous.
The survey also found that young motorists in the north west of England are the least concerned about using mobiles whilst driving.
Just last month, a report by the road safety charity IAM found that mobile phones pose a greater risk to UK drivers than drink or drugs.
Drivers caught using a hand-held mobile phone whilst driving is automatically punished with a £60 fine and three penalty points on their licence. Young drivers in their first two years of driving are only allowed six penalty points on their licence before they receive a driving ban.
A third of the young drivers surveyed also said that changing tracks on their iPod or mp3 player whilst driving was not a risk.
Current legislation rules that using such devices in your hand whilst driving is illegal, since you're distracted and therefore not in proper control of the vehicle. For the same reasons it is also against the law to drive whilst listening to music through earphones.
The large majority of the current cars on sale do offer MP3 and iPod plug-ins which allows drivers to legally play music through the onboard stereo whilst driving.
Photo courtesy of Ryan Harvey/Flickr