I do a lot of driving and at present my van doesn't have a Bluetooth hands free, so the phone doesn't get answered. The sat nav is in my periphery and the dash cam is tucked in the corner. If I was on commission for the amount of people using mobile phones whilst driving I could retire
I've witnessed first hand at least three accidents where I've seen people on the phone in one guise or another and I've seen the consequences of more than I care to think about. I think it's brilliant the police are finally taking this seriously. For years enforcing speed limits has been seen as the way to ensure road safety when it just isn't the case. Unsafe driving is the cause of danger and death be that ignorance of traffic law such as lane hogging/not driving on the left, speeding, driving whilst on the phone (talking on the phone is one thing, scrolling through it is abhorrent and lethal, drink driving, I could go on)
It's accepted now that drink driving is socially and legally unacceptable and the punishments reflect that in the main, using a mobile phone should be equally as socially unacceptable.
The Bluetooth built on my car means I don't have to take my hands off the wheel. Not that I'm so popular I get a raft of calls but it means I'm not losing concentration.
I'm the first one to question the feds when they do daft things or announce new initiatives but this is spot on and hopefully heralds a new era of traffic police and police in general beating sense and awareness into the more ignorant and dangerous drivers we have on these shores
All very well, and not having a go at you personally, but the Bluetooth built on your car means that whilst you don't have to take your hands off the wheel, you do have to take your mind off the road.
"Taking your mind off the road" is indeed THE major problem. It's my worst driving trait. I blame modern vehicles and inappropriately low speed limits. They mean you don't have to concentrate too much to get from A to B. Now, if they brought back the Ford Anglia 105E with the dodgy steering box, suspect roadholding, hopeless windscreen wipers, crap headlights and drum brakes, we'd all have to focus so hard to stay alive, there'd be no time to even think about making/receiving a call.
People try to justify it. I don't know if I'm getting old and jaded, but there just seems to be so many bad drivers on the road these days. Yorkshire Grey roundabout is a hotspot for bad drivers.
I was involved with a stop at Dartford Crossing, a East European Truck driver had been spotted on the M25, watching a film on his laptop. We see a lot of truck drivers using there phones.
The road has become a fucktards paradise, hoards of Lewis Hamiltons 4 weeks out of passing their test in far too powerful cars in relation to their brain capacity and drivers who wouldn't recognise a UK driving test, licence or valid insurance document if you force fed it to them in between banal Tik Tok posts at 70mph!
Drink driving is rightly totally socially unacceptable and using a phone especially to text is worse in my opinion. The amount of school run mothers i see doing it genuinely terrifies me
The house I live in for work is on a junction, the amount of people I see with their phone cupped between their ear and shoulder whilst turning right is ridiculous, especially and mainly women who have just taken their kids to school.
This week, on the middle (and I do mean 'middle' - she was between lanes 2 and 3) of the junction between the M61 and the M60 slip road (anyone who is familiar with it from driving back from away games at Bolton, Blackburn, Preston etc knows its an absolute pig of a junction) I saw a woman slow down in front of me to about 50 whilst straddling the lane markings. Instead of moving into one lane or the other, she carried on - drifting between them for about 200 yards. When I pulled into lane 4 to overtake, she was staring at her phone, one hand in the wheel, the other texting.
People that text and drive should be given mandatory prison sentences and five year driving bans
This is a huge bug bear of mine ... the amount of eye rolls I get when I’ve pulled people at work for it.
Even giving them a talking too about the implications they still don’t care (us having to deliver death messages, them going to prison for killing someone, lose their job etc etc). Mobile phone use needs to be an instant ban and the drink drive limit needs to be 0 just like Scotland.
Yes , I am unfortunately for my sins a: c*ntstable, rozzer, fed, [insert any other nickname].
This is a huge bug bear of mine ... the amount of eye rolls I get when I’ve pulled people at work for it.
Even giving them a talking too about the implications they still don’t care (us having to deliver death messages, them going to prison for killing someone, lose their job etc etc). Mobile phone use needs to be an instant ban and the drink drive limit needs to be 0 just like Scotland.
Yes , I am unfortunately for my sins a: c*ntstable, rozzer, fed, [insert any other nickname].
I'd allow a bit of tolerance on drink driving for next day driving but I'm talking reasonable rather than enabling driving after 2 hours sleep and a litre of sambuca
I'd allow a bit of tolerance on drink driving for next day driving but I'm talking reasonable rather than enabling driving after 2 hours sleep and a litre of sambuca
I once mooted the concept of iron spikes that spring out of the road at intersections when selfish morons sit on the hatched lines blocking through trafic, skewering the pricks, who are then left to rot away and have motorists point and laugh at...
Same policy for fucktards using mobile phones while driving perhaps with poisoned tips, so that if they survive the initial impaling they suffer horribly from toxic shock.
soapy_jones, your candidate for London mayor 2021.
I once mooted the concept of iron spikes that spring out of the road at intersections when selfish morons sit on the hatched lines blocking through trafic, skewering the pricks, who are then left to rot away and have motorists point and laugh at...
Same policy for fucktards using mobile phones while driving perhaps with poisoned tips, so that if they survive the initial impaling they suffer horribly from toxic shock.
soapy_jones, your candidate for London mayor 2021.
Having researched the impact of distracted driving on driver behaviour (reaction times, loss of control etc ) it is shocking. It needs to be viewed as unacceptable as drink driving but it will take time to get there
Comments
It will become illegal for anyone to pick up and use their mobile phone while driving, under new legislation to be enacted next year.
The change will end a loophole that can allow drivers to escape punishment for using a hand-held phone to take a photo or play a game.
Mobiles will still be able to be used to pay for a drive-through takeaway.
And drivers will still be able to use devices hands-free under the plans, the Department for Transport said.
At present, making phone calls and sending text messages are banned while driving.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54578607
Good luck to the Old Bill for policing this lot.
Fuck!!
People that text and drive should be given mandatory prison sentences and five year driving bans
I'd allow a bit of tolerance on drink driving for next day driving but I'm talking reasonable rather than enabling driving after 2 hours sleep and a litre of sambuca
Possible overreaction maybe, but I feel a bit drowsy typing this and the M25 is so boring even at 100 mph.
Same policy for fucktards using mobile phones while driving perhaps with poisoned tips, so that if they survive the initial impaling they suffer horribly from toxic shock.
soapy_jones, your candidate for London mayor 2021.
phones have a device called the off button
Having researched the impact of distracted driving on driver behaviour (reaction times, loss of control etc ) it is shocking. It needs to be viewed as unacceptable as drink driving but it will take time to get there
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-54310800