IN the wake of a driver jailed for 10 years after his lorry ploughed into a queue of cars on the A34, figures reveal the number of crashes involving people using mobile phones has reached a five-year high.

Police said officers attended 13 crashes in Oxfordshire in which drivers on their phones was deemed a contributory factor in 2015, compared with just five in 2011.

The force also handed out more Fixed Penalty Notices - 1,314 - in the Thames Valley than ever before for motorists using phones while driving.

Nationally Department for Transport figures showed that a driver impaired or distracted by their phone was a contributory factor in 440 accidents in Britain in 2015, including 22 that were fatal and 75 classed as serious.

Road safety charity Brake said there can be ‘no more shocking example’ of why using a mobile phone behind the wheel is dangerous than the crash that killed four members of the same family.

The charity’s campaigns director Gary Rae said Tomasz Kroker’s 10-year prison sentence was not enough, and called on the Government to increase penalties for those caught using their phone behind the wheel.

Mr Rae also called for hands-free calls to be made illegal.

He said: “There could be no more shocking example of why using a mobile phone behind the wheel is so dangerous.

“This was no ‘accident’ but four lives violently ended by a criminal driver who wasn’t looking at the road.

“A 10-year sentence, of which he will probably serve just five, doesn’t begin to do justice to the grieving families.”

He added: “We need action from the government now; prison sentences for criminal drivers who kill, must be strengthened, we need increased penalties for illegal phone use behind the wheel and hands free calls must also be banned.

“We also need more investment in road traffic policing, so drivers breaking mobile phone laws know they will be caught and punished.”