6 points & £200 fine for phone while driving going live today

I use Waze regularly on my phone which is mounted on my dashboard using a Spigen Stealth. I report incidents such as traffic and hazards often which does involve two or three button presses, would I be in trouble if the police saw me doing this?
 
Is this going to make any difference? Nope. You could make it punishable by death but it's of no use until it's actually enforced more than just a week long well advertised blitz bi yearly.
 
I should probably check up on the law really. I use a air vent mount for my mobile for maps/satnav and listening to podcasts. Occasionally I'll pause, skip etc. whilst it's in the mount, though only when standstill.
 
As it has been pointed out on the radio this morning it still won't be enough. You get something like £1000 for not paying your tv licence. But only £200 when there is a greater chance of causing an accident.

Also I have noticed a new corsa now has wifi built in. Why? So the driver can Facebook while driving. And also a new citreon? With dash cam that can take pictures to be shared on social media. It's OK they put a disclaimer so they are coverd.
 
See! I knew it was confiusing.

As far as I understand it if it's in a fixed location then it's ok to touch the phone as long as it's not distracting you, we obviously also have due care and attention/dangerous driving laws to cover that sort of thing.

If it's somewhere fixed then it's basically the same as your car radio.

So it's not illegal to make calls just the same as it's not illegal to sing along to a song, argue with your passenger etc but if you use any function that requires you to pick it up or if it's not secured then you're in bother.

Rightly so.. I had someone following me down the M4 on Saturday for about 10 miles, barely looked up once.
 
Let's say I use Waze and it's in a cradle, I see an accident so I tap to alert other road users that there's a problem on the road, would that get me in trouble? How about tapping in a diversion because a road is blocked? I've never quite been sure if its allowed because it's the same as fiddling with a mounted satnav while driving, but there wasn't anything against that.
 
opstrat said:
Also I have noticed a new corsa now has wifi built in. Why? So the driver can Facebook while driving. And also a new citreon? With dash cam that can take pictures to be shared on social media. It's OK they put a disclaimer so they are coverd.
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To be fair they both have other uses...

Also I don't think many people will be looking at the fine you're right.. the points however are disastrous.. I've accumulated 6 for speeding so being caught holding my phone now would be a ban.. thats a big deal.
 
Aedus said:
Let's say I use Waze and it's in a cradle, I see an accident so I tap to alert other road users that there's a problem on the road, would that get me in trouble? How about tapping in a diversion because a road is blocked? I've never quite been sure if its allowed because it's the same as fiddling with a mounted satnav while driving, but there wasn't anything against that.
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Technically I think there probably was.. as far as I understand it the legislation covers portable electronic devices not specifically just phones.

I would say.. if we had more road police that weren't obsessed with people speeding (although I accept thats a big deal) they might actually catch the huge numbers of people I see either driving in the pitch black with silly little driving lights on (I swear this is because of permanently lit dashboards, in my older cars it was so obviously if you didn't have your lights on because everything inside the car was black too) or the people who think dead ahead of their face completely blocking the road is the ideal place for a sat nav.. almost turning the world into a computer game.
 
If you are using handsfree and are involved in an accident your phone will presumably show it was being used at the time of the crash. How can you prove it was not actually in your hand ?
 
Usher said:
If you are using handsfree and are involved in an accident your phone will presumably show it was being used at the time of the crash. How can you prove it was not actually in your hand ?
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I guess the presence of a handsfree and any lack of suggestion you were driving carelessly would preclude anyone bothering to ask?

I understand the police can check your opened messages etc for times so reading a text when a phone was in a holder and then having a crash would see you charged with due care and attention or something like that.
 
I remember the old days driving one handed whilst trying to read an A to Z map. I use bluetooth to receive calls handsfree in my car these days and couldn't do without my sat nav.

Smoking should be banned in all cars tbh, especially when you get the dreaded blowback where the flicked cigarette comes back in through the open rear window and starts burning a hole in the seat.
 
What about changing a cd/radio station, smoking and passengers, you show me someone who doesn't turn their head to talk to the passenger in the front seat and I'll show you a liar, you do it sub-consciously.

Also how can they prove you were talking on the phone hands free, just say you were singing to the stereo and also has been stated you actually have to have traffic police to catch people.
 
robj20 said:
If all this is the case why do car manufacturers still add hands free to the car?
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Because not everyone is as evidence-based as Freakbro. :p

Increasing the penalties for holding your device while driving is a good thing, but as mentioned the evidence does NOT suggest that hands-free is safer. It's hard to see a U turn on hands-free happening any time soon though.

To all those saying passengers are surely as distracting as a phone call, the evidence doesn't suggest that for the reasons already mentioned. A passenger will adjust their speech depending on the driving conditions, someone one the phone will not.
 
90% of the time I see this is women. I had a car drift over on me last month at 70mph, I avoided the accident by a blast on the horn waking her up. When I pulled alongside and looked across she still had her head in the phone despite nearly having an accident. You see people looking down in their laps all the time for a sneaky look. Walking my son to school, any time their is a short pause in movement you see people reaching for the phone. As more and more people get dash cams hopefully this stuff can be submitted and people get points for it. The only way driving standards will improve is when everyone has the fear of cameras on them because there sure as hell aren't enough or will ever be enough police cars on the roads.
 
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