As many as 13 per cent of drivers are still using hand-held mobile phones while at the wheel, according to a UK survey.
And four per cent have admitted to regularly sending or reading text messages while driving, the poll by road safety charity Brake and insurance company Direct Line showed.
The number of people owning up to using hand-held mobiles at the wheel has fallen from 36 per cent in 2006 to the current figure of 13 per cent.
But the survey, of 1,000 drivers, also showed that the number of motorists using hands-free mobiles while driving has risen from 22 per cent in 2006 to 38 per cent now. (PA)
UK parents play the name game
Old-fashioned baby names are enjoying a surge in popularity in Britain while new parents are spurning fantasy monikers, according to the results of a new poll.
Medieval-style names have rebounded despite not having been popular for hundreds of years. Among the boys names enjoying a revival are Wyatt, Audley and Peyton while medieval girls names making a comeback include Millicent, Elvina and Kendra.
But fantasy names such as Princess, Crystal and Prince are seen as the group at risk of falling from favour most quickly. Nearly 36 per cent of parents surveyed said that the trend for fantasy names was already seen as outdated. (PA)
Drooling over a beautiful bulldog
Lucey, an 18-month old pooch, has beaten 49 drooling competitors to win this year’s Beautiful Bulldog pageant held in Des Moines, Iowa.
Lucey’s owner Tiffany Torstenson is a surgeon and said she often takes her dog to work. She said Lucey’s demeanour around doctors and patients helped convince her human family that she would make a perfect therapy dog.
She was certainly a hit with the crowd at the event, besting a pair of boys named Lord Nelson and Zuul to take the top honours. (PA)
Pair inseparable in life and death
An Ohio couple who met as teenagers and were married for 70 years, almost never sleeping apart, died from natural causes within a span of 15 hours, according to their daughter.
Helen Felumlee, 92, died on April 12 at their home in Nashport, Ohio, about 55 miles east of Columbus, and her husband Kenneth Felumlee, 91, passed away the next day, according to their joint obituary. (Reuters)
Patriotism vs piety in US pledge
A family is suing a US school district, contending that the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance discriminates against atheist children.
The lawsuit against the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District in New Jersey was filed in state court last month and was announced by the American Humanist Association. The group says the phrase, added in 1954, “marginalises atheist and humanist kids as something less than ideal patriots”.
The anonymous plaintiffs say those two words “under God” violate the state constitution. But school district lawyer David Rubin says the district is merely following a state law that requires schools to have a daily recitation of the pledge. He says individual students do not have to participate. (PA)