The GNR said in a communiqué that the “Smartphone, Smartdrive” operation aims to “contribute towards cutting the risk of accidents and encourage drivers to adopt safer behaviour”.

In the first four months of this year, the GNR caught about 9,000 drivers using a mobile phone when they were driving and last year it caught a total of about 22,000.

The GNR said that “the incorrect use of mobiles, tablets or similar devices to make calls, send texts on see social networks when driving involved serious risks such as visual distraction when drivers took their eyes off the road, limited movements (taking hands off the steering wheel and cognitive limitation as drivers got distracted”.