YOU may remember the time when mobile phones were commonly called car phones In fact, one of the major phone retailers still has the word “carphone” in its name.

When they first appeared, it seemed the whole point of a mobile was to make sure busy executives were not incommunicado when they were in the car. No one seemed to think twice about whether it was safe.

Fortunately, we have since woken up to the safety risks of using a phone at the wheel, in the same way we have come to consider the risks of smoking or handling asbestos.

The bad news is that, as today’s Daily Echo shows, there are still a minority of people who can’t see a problem. They presumably think their driving is so good that they will do no harm by speaking on the phone or texting at the wheel, whatever the law says.

But the sad reality is that no one is as brilliant a driver as that.