BARELY a day goes by when Dawn Timmings does not see a motorist using a mobile phone while driving.
It might only be a quick text message, or a catch-up call with family or friends, but Dawn knows better than most the consequences can be disastrous.
Only weeks after learning her mother Mary Rutherford's cancer had gone into remission after a five-year battle, her mother had been killed by a driver texting at the wheel.
"My whole world crumbled when mum was killed," said Dawn, 45.
"I'm lost without her. She was an incredible woman.
"She'd fought cancer so hard for so long but then, in the blink of an eye, her life was taken for the sake of a text message.
"I see people driving on their phones every day and I only travel about a mile-and-a-half to work. It does irritate me. I want to tell them what happened to my mum when someone was texting while driving.
"What could be so important to risk not just their own lives but someone else's life?"
Nikita Ainley was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in a young offenders' institute in December last year.
Ainley was using her BlackBerry when she smashed head-on into the Renault Clio carrying Mary on Monday, May 30, 2011.
Mary, 68, who had been shopping at Asda in Bilton and was on her way back home to Withernsea, died at the scene in Newfield Lane, Lelley. She was a passenger in the car.
Dawn, who says she has now only really started to grieve having had to wait for the court case to be finished, said: "I was dragged through hell and I am in counselling now, trying to get myself back together.
"My mum's death has left a huge gap in my life. My weekends would be spent with my mum and, after she was killed, my relationship broke down and I moved house.
"It has had an impact on every area of my life.
"The timing was so cruel. My mum was in remission after fighting against cancer for five years. We were making plans for the future and she was starting to feel like a woman again. It should have been a time of joy and being able to do girly things together."
Dawn, of west Hull, is backing a campaign launched this week by the charity Brake as part of Road Safety Week, which is calling on drivers to tune in to road safety to prevent crashes caused by multi- tasking at the wheel.
The campaign appeals to drivers to turn off their phones or put them in the boot and urges everyone to refuse to speak on the phone to someone who is driving.
It is being launched almost a decade after handheld mobiles at the wheel were banned.
According to the figures released by the charity, 5,400 drivers from East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire have points on their licence for using their mobile phone at the wheel or being otherwise distracted.
Six in ten schoolchildren from the regions report being driven by a driver talking on a phone and three in four have spotted drivers on mobiles outside their school or home.
"These are just the figures of people being caught," said Dawn, who believes the actual number of people doing it is a lot higher.
"Drivers have a huge responsibility to themselves and others and it's so important they understand that.
"Using a phone or any other technology when you're driving is madness. It's incredibly dangerous and selfish and it could cost you or somebody else dearly.
"Please commit to keeping your full attention on the road whenever you drive, and never use a phone at the wheel to text, call or anything else. Put it on silent and out of sight and reach, ideally in the boot. Don't let my mum's death be in vain."
Anyone caught using a hand- held phone while driving or riding could get an automatic fixed penalty notice, three penalty points on their licence and a fine of £60. The case could also go to court and you could be disqualified from driving or riding and get a maximum fine of £1,000.
In the worst case scenario, if you are to blame for an accident in which someone dies and you were using a mobile phone at the time, you could be facing up to 14 years in prison if convicted of causing death by dangerous driving.
Inspector Mark Hughes, of Humberside Police's roads policing team, said: "It has been illegal to use a handheld mobile phone while driving since December 2003, yet some people are still choosing to break the law and put themselves and other motorists at significant risk.
"There is worldwide evidence that using any sort of phone while driving increases the risk of an accident. Reaction times for drivers using a phone are about 50 per cent slower than other drivers. Even careful drivers can be distracted by a call or text – and a split-second lapse in concentration could result in a crash.
"You might be driving to work, to visit a friend or relative, or for any other reason, when a distraction or an error of judgment caused by using your mobile phone may result in the serious injury or death to yourself or another party.
"The consequences could be catastrophic for any number of people."
