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CNN Live At Daybreak

Euro Edition: Morning Papers

Aired December 01, 2003 - 05:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You know there is plenty on tap overseas today, so let's get right to our 'Euro Edition.' Let's head live to London and Becky Anderson.
Cell phones, huh?

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, cell phones. Thank you very much indeed, Carol.

Drivers buy hands-free sets to get around the new law out today in the U.K. The police will fine you with an on-the-spot fine if you are using your mobile phone in the car. It's a $50 fine. The police, though, in the U.K. say they will sort of let people off for the next two months because nobody understands this new law. And it hasn't been advertised aside from very few adverts on the radio. So what the police are saying, if you don't know there is a law out there, then how can you expected to pay a fine.

The other thing that is happening at the moment is everybody is rushing out and buying these hands-free sets. So rather than stopping making mobile phone calls in your car, which effectively is the problem, people are just making those mobile calls without using the telephone but by sort of pressing these dials -- these hands-free dials.

So what the police are saying, once again, is this new law is not supposed to stop you just using your hands, it's supposed to stop you using your phone in the car. Anyway, I'm not sure it's going to work.

COSTELLO: Well, wait a minute.

ANDERSON: They are going to give you two months. You've got a bit of an amnesty.

COSTELLO: We could probably guess the reason behind the law. Are there many traffic accidents caused because people are talking on their cell phones?

ANDERSON: Well there are. I mean, yes, the very serious point to all of this has been the 20 deaths over the years that we have using our phones attributed to the use of a phone in a car, one of which was a little girl called Rebecca Hodge (ph) some seven years ago. And her mom has been painstakingly going through the process of trying to get this into law. So she will be delighted today.

Mrs. Hodge, who says her daughter would have been 18 years old now, and would have been at university. She was hit by a car, which was being driven by a chap, it was deemed who had just made a mobile phone on his phone while he was driving. So there is quite a serious side to this.

They say -- the Automobile Association says that they can attribute at least 20 deaths in England to the use of us on our mobile phones. So it's really quite an important story. But the problem is, they haven't sold us the law properly so nobody really knows what's going on. They are going to give us two months, anyway.

These are the other -- these are the other headlines this morning. "The Independent," November the cruelest month. I'm sure you have been doing this story as well. The bloodiest four weeks in Iraq leaves 105 troops dead. Of course some Spanish workers over the weekend killed.

And "El Monday (ph)," the Spanish paper, yesterday and today reporting on the fact that there is 85 percent of the population who are against the war in Spain, expecting to see the prime minister there, Aznar, really up against it this week as he speaks to Parliament there justifying the fact that he will leave those Spaniards working in Iraq there, will not bring the troops out. Expected to get a lot of trouble over that.

Back to you guys.

COSTELLO: All right. Becky Anderson, live from London, many thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 1, 2003 - 05:47   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You know there is plenty on tap overseas today, so let's get right to our 'Euro Edition.' Let's head live to London and Becky Anderson.
Cell phones, huh?

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, cell phones. Thank you very much indeed, Carol.

Drivers buy hands-free sets to get around the new law out today in the U.K. The police will fine you with an on-the-spot fine if you are using your mobile phone in the car. It's a $50 fine. The police, though, in the U.K. say they will sort of let people off for the next two months because nobody understands this new law. And it hasn't been advertised aside from very few adverts on the radio. So what the police are saying, if you don't know there is a law out there, then how can you expected to pay a fine.

The other thing that is happening at the moment is everybody is rushing out and buying these hands-free sets. So rather than stopping making mobile phone calls in your car, which effectively is the problem, people are just making those mobile calls without using the telephone but by sort of pressing these dials -- these hands-free dials.

So what the police are saying, once again, is this new law is not supposed to stop you just using your hands, it's supposed to stop you using your phone in the car. Anyway, I'm not sure it's going to work.

COSTELLO: Well, wait a minute.

ANDERSON: They are going to give you two months. You've got a bit of an amnesty.

COSTELLO: We could probably guess the reason behind the law. Are there many traffic accidents caused because people are talking on their cell phones?

ANDERSON: Well there are. I mean, yes, the very serious point to all of this has been the 20 deaths over the years that we have using our phones attributed to the use of a phone in a car, one of which was a little girl called Rebecca Hodge (ph) some seven years ago. And her mom has been painstakingly going through the process of trying to get this into law. So she will be delighted today.

Mrs. Hodge, who says her daughter would have been 18 years old now, and would have been at university. She was hit by a car, which was being driven by a chap, it was deemed who had just made a mobile phone on his phone while he was driving. So there is quite a serious side to this.

They say -- the Automobile Association says that they can attribute at least 20 deaths in England to the use of us on our mobile phones. So it's really quite an important story. But the problem is, they haven't sold us the law properly so nobody really knows what's going on. They are going to give us two months, anyway.

These are the other -- these are the other headlines this morning. "The Independent," November the cruelest month. I'm sure you have been doing this story as well. The bloodiest four weeks in Iraq leaves 105 troops dead. Of course some Spanish workers over the weekend killed.

And "El Monday (ph)," the Spanish paper, yesterday and today reporting on the fact that there is 85 percent of the population who are against the war in Spain, expecting to see the prime minister there, Aznar, really up against it this week as he speaks to Parliament there justifying the fact that he will leave those Spaniards working in Iraq there, will not bring the troops out. Expected to get a lot of trouble over that.

Back to you guys.

COSTELLO: All right. Becky Anderson, live from London, many thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com