Drivers convicted of causing death by dangerous driving should be given stronger and more consistent penalties, according to road safety charity the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists).

An IAM analysis of eleven recent prosecutions involving mobile and smartphone use revealed that the average sentence for causing death by dangerous driving is four-and-a-half years in prison and a disqualification from driving for seven years.  In all of the cases analysed, the convicted drivers were found to have lost their concentration due to using their mobile phone.

Loss of concentration caused:
• Six incidents where vehicles ran into the back of a stationary or slow moving queue of traffic or a broken down vehicle
• Three incidents where vehicles drifted across the road and hit another vehicle head-on
• Two incidents leading to the death of a pedestrian

The vast majority of the public agree that that using a mobile phone while driving is clearly unsafe. Yet, since 2006, 750,000 fixed penalties have been issued to drivers for this very reason.1

IAM chief executive Simon Best said: “The maximum sentence available to the courts is fourteen years, so there is still scope for an even stronger road safety message that drivers who kill whilst distracted on their phones will be caught and jailed for a long time.

“The lesson here is obvious: never use your phone while driving. Whether you have a hands free kit or use loudspeaker, it doesn’t matter. Using your phone in any capacity reduces your attention from the task at hand – driving.”

1. 90 per cent of respondents disagreed that it was perfectly safe to talk on a handheld phone while driving according to British Social Attitudes survey 2011: Public Attitudes towards Transport:
2. IAM analysis of penalties for causing death by dangerous driving due to using a mobile phone covers the time period 2006-2011.
3. The IAM is the UK’s largest independent road safety charity, dedicated to improving standards and safety in driving, motorcycling and cycling. The commercial division of the IAM operates through its occupational driver training company IAM Drive & Survive. The IAM has more than 200 local volunteer groups and over 100,000 members in the UK and Ireland. It is best known for the advanced driving test and the advanced driving, motorcycling and cycling courses. Its policy and research division offers advice and expertise on road safety.

The latest Isle of Man Government Treasury survey has shown a significant increase, over a three-year period, in the economic contribution that the TT Races makes to the Island's economy.

The increase is driven by a rise in visitor numbers, and a higher per-head spend while visitors are on the Island. The research was carried out at the 2013 TT Races and compared with data collected during the 2010 meeting.

The study has revealed that almost 40,000 (39,224) visitors attended the 2013 TT Races, a 27% increase on the 2010 figure (30,787). On average they stayed 6.5 nights and spent £668 compared to £620 in 2010. The total spending of TT visitors in 2013 was £26.2 million compared with £19 million in 2010.

Treasury has assessed the economic contribution of this figure to be £18.9 million with an exchequer benefit of £3.5 million, which represent rises of £5.2 million and £900,000 respectively.

Laurence Skelly, MHK, Political Member, Isle of Man Tourism, commented: "It is important that the Department maximises the contribution that the TT makes to the Island's economy and these results are extremely encouraging and reflect the Department's work in promoting the TT races and developing the commercial programme."

He continued: "As well as the positive economic growth through visitors, we are also seeing significant rises in the commercial income such as sponsorship and ticket sales as well as a notable increase in media coverage which helps to promote the event, the Island and our business interests worldwide."

The net cost of the TT Races to the Government’s Department of Economic Development, once commercial revenues and income have been offset against costs, is £2,617,210. Costs include race administration, course set up costs, grandstand and paddock security, IT, communications, marshalling, medical cover including the air med service, marketing and administration, prize fund and appearance fees.

Each Sunday as night falls, the passion for Marco Simoncelli will burn again in Coriano for 58 seconds.

A three metre long flame will burn from the installation of artist Arcangelo Sassolino, created by an idea from Lino Dainese and Marco's family. There's nothing better than fire to represent Simoncelli's soul and enthusiasm, the things that made people love him.

'Every Sunday' will offer the same emotion he gave to his fans on the track and was unveiled on Thursday 12 September in the presence of family, authorities, riders and friends of Marco.

The first public appearance of the flame was yesterday at 7pm and will be repeated every Sunday.

FIRST PLACE SLIPS THROUGH SYLVAIN GUINTOLI’S FINGERS AND GOES TO SYKES BY JUST 22 THOUSANDTHS OF A SECOND.

EUGENE LAVERTY FINISHES FOURTH WITH THE TWO RSV4S RIDDEN BY GIUGLIANO (ALTHEA RACING) AND ELIAS (RED DEVILS) FINISH THIRD AND FIFTH RESPECTIVELY.

Istanbul, 14 September 2013 – The Aprilia Racing riders had shown a promising feeling on the Turkish track at Istanbul from the start. Although it was preceded by two odd sessions with the riders waiting in their garages due to the wet track, the Superpole sessions this afternoon confirmed yesterday’s suspicions: Sylvain Guintoli just missed the pole by 22 thousandths of a second after an almost perfect lap, while Eugene Laverty wasn’t quite able to make the grade with his second qualifying tyre although he did finish with a strong fourth best time.

Aprilia’s domination was confirmed by the final positions of the two “satellite” RSV4s: Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) will start from the third spot on the grid and Toni Elias (Red Devils), making his Superbike début on the missile from Veneto, took a promising fifth place.

With a gap of just one point from the top spot in the standings, Sylvain Guintoli had made no secret of his ambitions for this Superpole. Comforted by the times he put on the boards yesterday and after being the fasted rider during the free practice sessions leading up to Superpole, the French rider easily came through the first two sessions. He aggressively took on his challengers in the top nine, succumbing only to the “specialist” Sykes, even admitting that he made a few small mistakes in the fast lap. In any case Sylvain takes home an excellent starting position for the two races tomorrow and he certainly has the tools to be able to aim for the top step of the podium.

Sylvain Guintoli: “We came really close today. On my last lap I made a few small errors that may have cost me those 22 thousandths. It would have been nice to take the pole, but the most important thing is to start from the front row. I felt at home on this track straight away and I think tomorrow I’ll be able to aim for two good results. As I already said, the battle for the championship is really getting heated up now, so there should be two exciting races tomorrow on a track which is basically new for everyone”.

Eugene Laverty also put in an excellent performance, steadily improving throughout the weekend until arriving just short of the podium in Superpole. The rider from Toomebridge put in the fastest time in Superpole 2, which was the best possible way to come through to the final session. Unfortunately Eugene struggled a bit with his second qualifying tyre taking the first spot on the second row of the grid. The two races tomorrow promise to be quite heated for him as well tomorrow with an excellent chance for a podium finish.

Eugene Laverty: “I put in the best time in Superpole 2 but I wasn’t able to repeat the performance in the last session. In any case, fourth place is nothing to look down on and tomorrow looks like it will be a battle between four riders where we’ll all be able to make a play for it. Race 1 should be especially interesting because none of us were really able to lap a lot today on race tyres since the track was wet, so that will make things even more uncertain”.

Audience figures released on the 2013 Isle of Man TT races are showing a significant increase on last year's statistics with television, radio, print media coverage and the on-line audience all experiencing double digit growth year on year.

TV4 has reported that the North One TV shows are nearly 20% up overall on last year's viewers with well over six million people watching this year's programmes, an increase of almost a million on the 2012 audience.

The most watched show was Monday's Monster Energy Supersport 1 show with an average of 684,000 and a peak of 725,000 - about three times the slot average and benchmark audience share.

This year also saw next day highlights programmes screened in the USA via Discovery Velocity and with further international markets also reporting increased viewing figures, the worldwide TV audience is also expected to increase significantly by year end.

Neil Duncanson, Chief Executive, North One TV commented:

"The TT Races is now one of ITV's key sports properties and their executives are really pleased with this year's audience figures. Although it is still early days, our international partners are also reporting growth which bodes well for future distribution."

The official iomtt.com website, run by Duke Marketing, is reporting growth across a number of key international territories with a significant increase in the number of users tracking the event through live timing as well as an overall year on year increase in the number of unique users.

Over the two weeks of practice and racing over 1,000,000 unique users visited the official Isle of Man TT website www.iomtt.com creating 7.6 million page views. This compares positively with same period in 2012, which saw just under 800,000 users. The website's live timing service, TT Live was seen by around 200,000 fans across the world.

Social media proved very popular with the total number of people following the official Isle of Man TT facebook page growing to over 140,000 during the race period and twitter users up to nearly 40,000. Approximately 750,000 people saw messages posted to the official facebook page - a near doubling on TT 2012's figures while the new new online TT shop (shop.iomtt.com) also saw notable growth.

Across the various online platforms a strong trend towards the growth of a global fanbase continued. Britain and America continue to be the largest sources for online fans but countries such as Brazil, India, Japan, Poland, Italy are contributing an ever-increasing number of a fans.

The new Isle of Man TT Races App, created by Agency Mobile, was downloaded 73,000 times across the race fortnight and was the most downloaded sports app on iTunes during the event and the second highest grossing sports app. There were a total of 1.4 million active 'sessions' with 13,000 active daily users.

As well as providing live timing, the app also offered access to the Manx Radio TT commentary, further boosting the number of people listening to the live race commentary. This year there were 1.86 million successful connections to the various digital services provided by Manx Radio via iomtt.com and the TT Races App. These listeners are in addition to the audience who listened live via the dedicated 1368AM service and FM broadcasts available on the Island.

Mannin Media, producers of the TT races official programme reported that the programme sales, through on-line and retail outlets, were up a total of 9.5% year-on-year, the highest circulation since the Centenary TT races in 2007. This year also saw the introduction of Mannin's 'digital TT review magazine which is now available for I-pad, android and Kindle tablets.

Laurence Skelly, Political Member, Isle of Man Tourism, commented: "The TT Races now provides a real profile and platform for the Isle of Man worldwide as well as generating visitors to the Isle of Man. We are able to use the different media channels that we have to promote our Island's culture and heritage as well as building a worldwide fanbase for the TT Races and generate incremental commercial revenue."