Trucker fined for reading paper while driving during police mobile phone checks (From Oxford Mail)

Trucker fined for reading paper while driving during police mobile phone checks

5:24pm Monday 15th March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(5)

A TRUCK driver was landed with a £60 fine after he was spotted reading a newspaper while motoring through a police checkpoint today.

He was one of 89 drivers given penalty notices in Didcot and Henly - 36 drivers were fined for using their phone and 53 for driving without wearing a seatbelt.

Four vehicles were seized because of a lack of MOT certificate, insurance or driver’s licence.

Pc Mark Pilling said one driver in a flat-bed truck was fined for not being in proper control of his vehicle after he was seen with a copy of The Sun newspaper spread across the steering wheel.

He added: “He was even turning the pages as he went past.”

Police will continue to hold stop checks across the county as part of a week-long crackdown on mobile phone use.

Pc Pilling said: “The whole idea of this week is to get out there and try to get people to think – and not to use their phone behind the wheel.”

A woman, who refused to be named, was fined £60 and had three points put on her licence for using her mobile phone. She said: “I was only holding my mobile phone I wasn’t using it.”

Gary Chewings, 46, of Didcot, was stopped on Abingdon Road, Didcot, for not wearing his seatbelt.

He said: “I had a bad stomach so didn’t wear the seatbelt.

“I’ll wear my seatbelt from now on otherwise I’ll get it in the ear from the missus.”

Motorists failing to wear a seatbelt can be fined up to £60 while anyone using a mobile faces £60 fine and three penalty points.