Bermuda bans mobile phones whilst driving Seven years after using a mobile phone while driving was banned in the UK, next week Bermuda's Senate also passes a new law to stop the multi-dexterous task of driving and talking.

Of course it is not necessarily the distraction of talking that is the danger, it is the holding of the mobile phone device and ever since my arrival in Bermuda I have been astonished to how many car drivers use mobiles while they drive. In a country where the longest journey can't take longer than an hour before you fall into the ocean, it is honestly rare to see a driver without a phone pinned to their ear as if the call couldn't wait.

Bermuda has one of the worst road traffic injury and death statistics in the world, and it is no surprise to see a young lad on a moped weaving in and out of the traffic on narrow roads either with their mobile rammed in the gap between ear and helmet or texting. Yes texting.

Many times when driving, I look in my rear-view mirror and watch a motorcyclist looking down whilst tapping into his phone. I hate to admit it, but often I have thought about slamming the brakes on, but I couldn't bear the mess it would make to my white car!

Where in America the state authorities blame the critical mass of the country for it's belated outlawing of mobile phone use whilst driving - just six states ban use outright, Bermuda's government blamed the time it took doing it's "research and consultation." It is a big place after all!

Interestingly the new law also bans the use of in-car televisions, probably because in Bermuda, they are bound to be above the steering wheel and also tinted windows!  ¶ 12:59