- Dramatic footage shows the A5 car drifting onto the wrong side of the road
- Matt Brown and Rosie Caink were driving through Bradford in opposite direction
- Mr Brown, 22, was forced to swerve when the car approached them head on
- Ms Caink, 20, said driver was looking at phone and only looked up at last minute
110
View
comments
This is the moment a young mother and father were nearly involved in a head-on crash after an Audi driver who was 'glued to his phone' veered onto the opposite side of the road at 60mph.
Dramatic footage shows the A5 car hurtling towards Matt Brown and Rosie Caink after drifting onto the wrong side of the road on a busy dual carriageway.
Incredibly, the beauty therapist and her boyfriend managed to avoid being hit after Mr Brown, 22, swerved at the last minute.
This is the moment a young mother and father were nearly involved in a head-on crash after an Audi driver who was 'glued to his phone' veered onto the opposite side of the road at 60mph
But Ms Caink, 20, said the pair were left terrified by the incident and had to pull over at the side of the road in to recover from the shock.
She said the driver - a man in his 20s with a personalised licence plate - was clearly on his phone and had only looked up seconds before the near miss, but sped off without stopping.
'He had his head down and he didn't look at the road once - he was 100 per cent looking at his phone,' she said.
'He was completely oblivious about heading into oncoming traffic and made no attempt to swerve whatsoever.
'If Matt hadn't swerved when he did, the outcome could have been extremely different.'
Ms Caink and Mr Brown have a one-year-old daughter and the young mother said she was 'relieved' she was not with them in the vehicle.
'That just doesn't even bear thinking about,' she said. 'It shows how much looking at your phone takes your concentration away.
Matt Brown and Rosie Caink (together, left) managed to avoid being hit and Mr Brown swerved to miss the car. Ms Caink said she was relieved their daughter (right) was not in the car
'A head-on collision could have had terrible consequences. I'm still in shock to be honest.'
The couple were driving at 30mph through Bradford in their Fiat 500 when they caught the terrifying footage on their dashcam.
After the couple pulled over, a woman who had been driving behind the Audi stopped to ask them if they were alright.
In March, the penalty for being caught using a mobile phone while driving doubled to six penalty points and a £200 fine.
The couple were driving through Bradford when the near-miss took place. This picture from the footage shows the road clear ahead of them, with the Audi in the distance
The couple were driving at 30mph through Bradford in their Fiat 500 (pictured) when they caught the terrifying footage on their dashcam
Miss Caink said: 'I cannot believe people are still u sing their phones while driving when the new laws have been put in place to deter them. It's not just the points or a fine, it's someone's life, someone's family.'
After the couple (pictured) pulled over, a woman who had been driving behind the Audi stopped to ask them if they were alright
Sgt Cameron Buchan, who is leading Operation Steerside, a district-wide road safety crackdown by West Yorkshire Police, said: 'If this is an example of someone using their mobile phone while driving, it shows exactly why it is against the law.
'The situation is a stereotype of exactly why it is illegal and so dangerous.'
Brake, the road safety charity, said: 'We work with families who have had theirlives torn apart because someone thought they could multi-task behind thewheel.
'This terrifyin g footage could so easily have had a similar ending.
'With mobile technology becoming ever more available and advanced, driverdistraction is a growing danger.
'That's why Brake is calling for traffic policing to be made a nationalpriority - officers need more resources to remove dangerous drivers from ourroads. We are also calling for a ban on hands-free kits, which research showsare just as risky as hand-held phones.'
More than 9,000 drivers have now been stopped since Steerside began in February last year.
Of the 9,028 recorded offences, 772 have been for mobile phone use.
