Mobile phones and driving

[ayjay]

Just in case you've missed this.

 

Don't drivel and drive

 

 

Is there some facility for shopping offenders?

 

I still see plenty of them, I'd love to take their reg. number/date/time and pass it on to plod.

[Andy_1984]

ive said people shouldnt drive and talk on the phone at the same time, my boss does it far too often, when i call him i can hear the audible alert that his seat belt aint on, i hang up immediatley and tell him to put on his seat belt.

 

it is alot easier than you think to miss things while chatting on the phone, for example last week we had been talking about the 3 points for talking on phone, 30 minutes later im on the phone and a college puts somthing down right infront of my face, i cant remember him even coming up to my desk and i was wondering how the hell the documents got infront of me.

 

i had to laugh at one person though but was feeling terrible for her as her child was killed due to someone chatting on the phone while driving, she said cars should be fitted with devices that turned the phone off, i could see alot of angry pedestrians if this was in place, driving by people and there phone is turned off while making that last minute million pound deal

 

another thing i would like to see banned while driving. those huge furry dice and other crap, i see lots of people with 3 times the origonal size of the dice covering 1/3 of their window. surely its a hazzard as they are blocking their view plus they just realy bug the crap out of me

Edited February 27, 2007 by Andy_1984

[pestguard1]

Just turn your phone off when your in your car driving ...................simple..............no fine ............no points added to your licence .................no one killed due to you taking your eyes off the road.............................whats more important than a life ...............

[billy50000]

Hi all

 

i cannot stand the k*obs,i had one spaz cut the entire corner the other day because he was too busy nattering:(

 

right into my damn lane,and he still grins(smug *^^&^%$

 

i say get the passenger to operate it or turn it off!!!

i dont even bother looking at the phone when it rings whilst driving,let alone bothering to pull in

if its important then they can wait till i get where im going,if not`sod it!!

 

sg

[chesters1]

its pointless upping the fines etc or having millions of laws forbidding this or that ,the thing that stops illegal actions of any kind is the fear of being caught not the law itself ,more cops = less law breaking not however cops raising revenues behind speed guns on perfectly straight roads or fake roadworks for weeks deliberately catching those who dare to go a few miles over the now far lower speed limit imposed on this stretch of road enforced for no reason but money.

i'm not a mobile phone user ,mines purely for emergencies and that £5 top up lasts for years ,why advertise a way of someone talking to you when you may not want to talk to them? ,if you want your working hours to stretch to 24 then go ahead but it seems silly to me ,i dont even like answering the real phone never mind this intrusion they call a mobile one.

some may call it a neccessity ,balls! life went on before them ,money was made before them and people rang at respectable times between 9 and 5 .the british empire was built before phones of any kind so you dont really need them now bar to look impressive as you text yourself because others cant stand you and can only stomach you on the phone not face to face!

Edited February 27, 2007 by chesters1

[Ken Davison South Wales]

I think the three points will be the factor, £60 now days is nothing but losing your licence is another matter.

[Andy_1984]

I think the three points will be the factor, £60 now days is nothing but losing your licence is another matter.

 

 

give that man a coconut. IMO £60 is nothing compared to even 1 point on my license, not that id use my phone driving i dont even use it crossing the road

[UK-Fishing-Tackle.co.uk]

Like most things it's an easy target - you see nutters in their cars absolutely belting their lungs our to meatloaf or whatever crap they have on, and thats still perfectly ok. As I've said before - I passed the most dangerous shitbox in the world on the M5 not long ago - which probably only just made it's journey before the suspension gave in and the car hit the deck, BUT, prosecuting someone for having an unsafe car is considerably more complicated (and has more defence options) than prosecuting a mobile phone holder.

 

My own personal view is the government should make a proper rigourous stand against uninsured drivers (who really are the scum of the earth - if you get hit by one as a driver or a pedestrian then basically your screwed), then worry about prescription/non prescription drug abuse (in Australia they can do drugs tests at the roadside - not here though), then worry about getting old people off the road or introducing a system to monitor them more closely (sorry oldies, but we all know that 75 year olds with vertigo shouldn't be driving YET they bloody can), then finally lets worry about distractions in the vehicle itself. YES I accept mobile phones cause accidents, BUT, in absolute truth proportionally many other things cause far more and the law doesn't get hastily changed to deal with these.

 

Ching!

[Guest long-trotter]

Mobile phones are more dangerous than speeding. I can break the speed limit very safely, and remain utterly focussed on the road and other road users, and remain in complete control of the vehicle. I do so every single day as a pursuit driver. However, when you are using your phone, you aren't focussed at all on the road or people around you, and you aren't in proper control of the vehicle. This can be evidenced daily because almost every car that grabs my attention by drifting out of lane, or lane hogging, or those odd double turn maneouvers (that occur when trying to steer and change gear with the same hand) will have a driver on the phone.

 

The general lack of focus and how dangerous this is was summed up very well by the programme "Child Of Our Time" on the BBC, to post it showed very well that even a small lack of focus when driving can very quickly lead to some thing going wrong.

In the experiment a Police Driver Trainer did a simple drive in and out of cones at speed, he did it once without any distraction and was fine, he then did it a second time answering simple maths question, he lost control of the car at the second cone. Although was not on the phone his brain was working the same way it would if he did have a phone to his ear.

 

No matter how much I try to convince people it's not about revenue, well I won't go there I will be wasting my time.

[nick]

Hi long-trotter

 

Please don't take this as a dig at you or the police in general, but how do you reconcile what you have said with police using the radio whilst driving?

 

And do the TV get it wrong when they show police officers in pursuit giving a commentary on what is happening?

 

Just wondered.