A CALL has gone out to car passengers to put pressure on drivers to hang up while at the wheel.

The plea from a top police officer comes after figures show the number of motorists prosecuted by Avon and Somerset Police for using their mobile phone has shot up over the past couple of years.

But he has warned that some people continue to put lives at risk by using their phones at the wheel.

Up until October 17, 2,037 people in the force area were issued with fixed penalty notices for using a handheld mobile while driving.

Last year 2,496 were caught, up from 1,712 the previous year and just two in 2003.

Insp Martin King, of the force's road policing unit, said lives were being put at risk by drivers chatting over the airways instead of concentrating on the road.

He said: "Huge numbers of people are still using their phones as they drive.

"There are road safety issues - it distracts drivers, they probably only have one hand on the steering wheel and they are concentrating on the phone call rather than the road.

"There is a huge amount of supporting evidence to suggest drivers using mobile phones cause accidents.

"That has been a key part of the investigation into a number of accidents on the motorway."

Insp King said in an age when we are more reliant on mobiles, fellow passengers should help stamp out the offence of driving and phoning.

"Does it really matter if a phone call is taken or made half an hour later when you've stopped driving - if not, pull over," he said.

"There needs to be social pressure from passengers to stop drivers using mobiles as they drive - after all they are treating passengers with a massive lack of respect and putting them at risk."

The reason for the low number of prosecutions initially is that police were keen to educate motorists before introducing an enforcement policy over the past three years.