The majority of drivers would back a blanket block on mobile phone use behind the wheel, new research finds.

Continental Tyres’ Vision Zero survey found that drivers back blanket ban on mobiles.

Two-thirds (66%) of motorists believe the Government should introduce technology to disable certain phone functions for the sake of safety, according to the analysis by Continental Tyres.

Yet the study of 1,000 UK motorists for Continental Tyres’ Vision Zero – a commitment to reduce road fatalities worldwide – uncovered that 11.3 million road users own up to using a mobile phone illegally – with 31% saying they’d done so in the last month. And 46% of drivers admitted they think it is OK to look at their phone when stopped or in slow moving traffic.

Continental Tyres’ safety expert Mark Griffiths said: “Our research reveals that drivers know that their use of phones is illegal, distracting and dangerous yet they cannot help themselves.

“Nearly half, 45%, told us they struggle to be digitally disconnected and 28% felt that so many people now checked their mobile in traffic it had become normalised.”

Professor John Groeger, a specialist in driver psychology and author of ‘Sharing the Driving’ for Continental Tyres, added: “It is really interesting that motorists want an enforced solution rather than to curb their own behaviour – yet there is no such system currently being promoted in the UK.

“It is imperative that we find a way to resolve this as the ‘switch cost’ – the critical time it takes us to shift our concentration from a task like reading a text to again fully engaging in driving is so important in reducing accidents.”