Mobile phone usage
- Thread starter Steveocee
- Start date
Of course, but to solve an issue like phone use it would help to look at some of the route causes. Today it's expected that people are contactable all the time. There are already laws to prevent an boss expecting their works to break the law, ie fines for a transport company if they overload vehicles, encouraging drivers to break hours rules etc. why not the same for encouraging distracting conversations? ? Even a hands free conversation can be very distracting but these days you wouldn't last long in a job ignoring the phone.
Soldato
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- Kent
Indeed there is.
http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-news--general-news/police-to-seize-mobile-phones-in-every-car-crash/25313.html
Good move, currently they only look if someone has been seriously injured/killed, now it should be for ALL incidents (slow speed car parking ding and on the phone? Bad luck).
Question is will it just the normal 3 points or a more serious penalty if you were on the phone and involved in an accident - for starters you'll be partially to blame I'd have thought, as the question of whether the driver was distracted and could have avoided the accident if they weren't distraced will come about.
Car pulled out on you and you were on the phone and ploughed into the side of them... could you have stopped quicker if you weren't updating facebook at the time?
I hope they up the points to 6 too, that should hopefully reduce the amount of people on their phones.
Associate
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As a cyclist, I've always used the 'make eye-contact' rule when approaching junctions where cars are waiting and they won't pull out on you, and it works 100% of the time, and eye-contact is made within a second or so of me looking at the driver.
When I see somebody on their phone, which is often, I try to stare them down, I don't think i've ever got a single one to make eye contact, they're just not with it at all. They just seem to be pulling at the steering wheel with no clue as to what they're doing or what's going on outside the car, it's scary.
When I see somebody on their phone, which is often, I try to stare them down, I don't think i've ever got a single one to make eye contact, they're just not with it at all. They just seem to be pulling at the steering wheel with no clue as to what they're doing or what's going on outside the car, it's scary.
As an aside, this is why they use PTT radios on Top Gear.
You couldn't criminalise it without essentially criminalising the emergency services, taxi drivers, lorry drivers...
Actually they can still do you for it if they feel it's impeding your driving:
https://www.gov.uk/using-mobile-phones-when-driving-the-law
I didn't say you could use one with impunity. My point is it is not inherently illegal in the same way that using a mobile phone is. I'm assuming it would be a charge of driving without due care and attention, rather than being specifically related to the radio.
What are the chances of that happening though. Policing in this country is now reactive and sadly not proactive.
Associate
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Holding a phone to your ear made it harder to hear and decipher what the other party was saying back in the day when the law was conceived.
Calling back then simply took too much concentration - but I think modern 3G phones and also the proliferation of voice over IP apps I don't think that applies so much any longer.
Another problem is people having big discussions or arguments that took their mind away from driving but I think people make quick "I'm 5 minutes away" - "I'm late" calls nowadays due to the law - a little like in the 1980s when it was really expensive.
Soldato
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- 9 Dec 2009
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- Bristol
I've noticed the increase of blatant phone use on the motorway.
Have proper police vehicle patrols decreased since the arrival of the Traffic Officers?
Just wondering if that might have something to do with it..
Have proper police vehicle patrols decreased since the arrival of the Traffic Officers?
Just wondering if that might have something to do with it..
Man of Honour
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- Southampton, UK
No, they've decreased since the cuts have decimated the Police.
That's not quite true. The resources to be proactive have been moved to fill the gaps in the reactive side, but it's still an important part of Policing.
I thought it was more to do with bluetooth/speakerphone phone usage being practically impossible to police whereas holding the phone is actually pretty damn obvious (given the number of people we see doing it) and therefore comparatively easy to police.
That was before the days of zomg speeding.
That was before the days of zomg speeding.