SOME people think the law against using mobile phones while driving is only there to generate cash from fines.

However, I know for a fact that using a handset while on the road can blind a driver to their surroundings.

I saw the proof on Swindon’s County Road in the snow yesterday. That was where a bloke making a call from his small car failed to spot a dirty great Toyota Landcruiser with fluorescent markings.

A Landcruiser with the word “POLICE” written all over it in big letters.

Stopped shortly afterwards by Wiltshire police traffic officers, the driver was apologetic but fully aware he’d been breaking the law.

He is now contemplating a court punishment of at least a £60 fine and three penalty points.

Going out on patrol with traffic officers is a chance to see the world from their perspective, and it can be a very nasty world indeed.

It is also a world where the arrival of the force can mean the difference between life and death.

At around the same time as we patrolled the Swindon area yesterday, officers in the south of the county were called to a car stuck in a huge snowdrift.

Inside were a wheelchair-bound woman and a man suffering from leukaemia. Both were swiftly taken to hospital in Salisbury.

Traffic police bridle at the popular perception that they’re there to pick on people for minor offences and levy an unofficial tax.

But then, they’re the ones who have to deal with the tragedies that can ensue from such apparently trivial lawbreaking.

Glenn, 48, and David, 39, have more than 30 years of traffic policing experience between them.

They can tackle a whole variety of problems. Yesterday’s patrol for example, saw them arranging for a more powerful police 4X4 to tow a full-sized articulated lorry up the slippery hill opposite Sainsbury’s on the Oxford road.

They take satisfaction in helping members of the public –yesterday, between midnight and 3pm, police were called on 999 no fewer than 99 times.

Sadly, many of the people they encounter are beyond help. When it comes to horrific images imprinted on the mind’s eye, the traffic department is rivalled only by the murder squad.

There are the drivers who’ve died or been mutilated because they disregarded the seatbelt law; the loving parents who’ve discovered too late that a car passenger’s lap is no place for a toddler; the driver texting at the wheel who was half way through the “soon” of “see you soon” when the end came; the countless drivers whose last moments were spent speeding to meetings and appointments they could have turned up late for without the world ending.

As a family liaison officer, it sometimes falls to Glenn to be the bearer of the worst news. He said: “Imagine having to go to somebody’s house on Christmas Day and tell a family that their loved one, whose presents are there waiting to be opened, has been killed.”

Glenn doesn’t need his imagination to consider such a horrific thing – merely his memory. He said: “People should remember that they only have one life. I would sooner stop 10 people for not wearing a seatbelt – and there are days when we see 20 in a morning – than have to deal with a tragedy because somebody wasn’t wearing one.”

David added: “There are people who ask us if we’ve got nothing better to do, but policing carries a lot of responsibilities and this is all about road safety. Everything we do is engineered toward that.

“People don’t comprehend the external factors that are in play.

“They think they’re safe because they have side impact protection and airbags, but they don’t see what a car that’s been in a 60mph crash looks like. We do.”