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A pilot scheme which uses safety cameras to detect motorists illegally using their mobile phones or not wearing their seatbelts could be rolled out across Kent.

Safety camera vans will be watching for motorists who illegally use their mobile phones or fail to use their seatbelts during a three month pilot scheme in Medway.

As well as encouraging motorists to drive at acceptable speeds, the Kent & Medway Safety Camera Partnership (K&MSCP) is keeping a close watch on drivers who break the law in other ways.

Ian Procter, Chairman of the Safety Camera Partnership, said: “Our camera operators see offences other than speeding being committed at camera sites. Safety cameras are only in locations where people have been killed or seriously injured, so by reducing the number of offences committed at these sites we hope to lower casualties even further.

“We will not issue fixed penalty notices during the pilot stage as we hope that sending letters to vehicle owners will be sufficient to deter people from committing further offences.”

Chief Inspector Roscoe Walford of Kent Police said: “This is about using the resources available in a more dynamic way in an attempt to reduce the number of people being seriously injured or killed.

There are 4 main factors that contribute to collisions that end with serious consequences - speeding, being distracted while driving (for example talking on the telephone) not wearing a seat belt and drink driving.

The use of the Kent and Medway Safety Cameras will help address 3 out of these 4 factors. This is of course in addition to the every day enforcement and education carried out by the Central Roads Policing Unit and local patrols.”

It is a criminal offence to use a mobile phone while driving. Besides the obvious consequences of being fined or facing a prison sentence, talking or texting on a phone has been shown to impair a driver’s ability to the same extent as if they were above the legal alcohol limit.

In addition, it is now seen as being as antisocial as drink-driving - in a recent independent survey, 99% of the 1119 people questioned said they viewed using a mobile phone while driving as 'unacceptable behaviour'.

Similarly, despite continued advertising about the dangers of not wearing a seat belt, around 10% of people in vehicles recently surveyed in the county had failed to belt up.

Last year 95 people died in road traffic collisions in Kent and Medway – 18 of them had not been wearing their seatbelts and may have survived if they’d belted up. If you have a collision at 25 mph unbelted, it is like falling from a two storey building - at 40 mph it is like falling from six stories, and at 60 mph it is like falling from 12 stories.

It is recommended that drivers turn off their mobile phones for the duration of a journey and use them only when safely parked. It is also advised that drivers and passengers wear a seatbelt at all times, no matter how short the journey may be. People who don’t wear their seatbelt, unless medically exempt, may want to think about the reason they don’t wear one when it could be the one thing that saves their life if they are in a crash.