Subject line says it all.

Surely the act of lighting up and extinguishing a *** is a distracting and dangerous as trying to press buttons on a mobile phone?

How can one be frowned upon, and not the other?

Also, how do smokers cope with emergency situations if a *** is in the hand? Drivers need BOTH hands for proper control - surely if a *** is in the hand, it restricts 100% proper operation?

 

The same could be said for eating, operating the stereo/changing a CD,picking your nose or scratching your ****!!!

J uk

 

Why do peeps pick their nose in the car?

L

 

So why is the mobile phone singled out for illegality then?

 

Can you dial a number without looking at the phone? Can you scratch your **** without looking to see where it is itchy?

 

Damn easy to dial a number on a mobile if you have programmed into a quick dial key, such as '9' say.

 

Is mobile phone use actually illegal now?

I thought it was strongly disapproved of by the police (with the threat of potentially being done for driving without due care and attention.)

Hardly use my phone anyway...

Rich

 

But it's not illegal to use your mobile in the car

Jack

 

I should have thought that taking a *** in hand while driving was illegal, if not it bloody well should be.
regards
Julian Clarey

 

What about ********??

 

No thanks Luke

 

Look how many people use mobiles when driving. Then look how slooooow they drive, and how they aren't in proper control.

Smoking and driving is a skilled art, but it should never be illegal to do that. Surely moving one hand off the wheel to adjust your heaters is the same.

 

As discussed in another thread..

Miller admitted to having to pull over before banging one out, very considerate me thinks.

This has been done to death, if you search you should find some stuff.

It doesn't take anywhere near the thought process to smoke a cigarrette as it does to hold a conversation where you are constantly thinking about what the other person is saying and what you are about to say... IMHO and only MHO

Alex

 

This is a whole hornets nest you have stirred up you little tinker.

Using a mobile phone hands free is still legal although i understand plans are afoot to ban it.

Things to think about if we are talking about drivers concentration/ due car and attyention.

Smoking - must be banned then
Drinking/eating - ditto
Using your rear view mirror whilst on the move Hmmmm.
operating ICE
Sneezing/coughing - Perhaps we should not drive whe n we have a virus, colds or hayfever!

[Edited by Paul Habgood - 1/23/2002 1:17:29 PM]

 

I'm surprised people feel the need to argue on this one. I'm sure we've all seen the way people are totally distracted when using a phone whilst driving. When people smoke I don't think there concentrating on the cigarette!

Lunchie

P.S. A mate of mined was stopped for eating an ice cream while driving. Serves him right the messy bugger

 

Eatting and drinking is illegal... even at traffic lights apparently... but I can drink a can of coke for example more safely than using a mobile or changing CD...

Smoking doesn't seem to be although it is illegal to ride a motorcycle and smoke. Which seems a bit more logical.. although I have seen someone with cig resting and melting part of the helmet whilst riding but he was a kn0b...

 

Its when you're on the mobile, writing down a message, looking at a road map and flicking your *** out of the window it get's dodgy


J uk

 

/snip
It doesn't take anywhere near the thought process to smoke a cigarrette as it does to hold a conversation where you are constantly thinking about what the other person is saying and what you are about to say
/snip

Does that apply to talking to passengers as well?

 

eating / drinking / phoning - can get done for any of these and rightly so. Maybe the difference with a *** is that you can still use both hands to drive your car.

Also, I guess you don't have to actually look at the *** lighter to operate it, unlike dialing a phone.

How many sh1theads do you see on the wrong side of the road / meandering across lanes at roundabouts etc. cos they are on the phopne and can't change gear etc. so have to cut corners or whatever.

Offenders should be shot!!!
:-)

Edited by juan to say:


[Edited by juan - 1/23/2002 1:36:45 PM]

 

And you can hold a *** and still have two hands on the wheel/can change gear.....

 

I find it difficult to drive whilst rolling a ***

 

Put it another way - would you be annoyed if your aeroplane pilot was smoking a *** at take off or landing?

Would you not think "he shouldn't be doing that - that's dangerous and his mind cannot be on the job"

Why is a car any different?

 

...wouldnt a plane cockpit de-pressurise when he wound his window down?

 

There is also the problem of dropping a cig... drop a sandwich or mobile and less urgent to pick it up..

But I can see that someone experianced with cig smoking could probably drive safely whilst doing so. Interesting to know if it is illegal though.

You might get muddled up Jason, burn your ear on the cig and throw your phone out the window...
wonder if a cig or a phone would be worst when on the bike following you?

 

JGM - At least with a phone you will have a handy way of getting an ambulance/hearse

 

JGM,
Like it:d

J uk

 

Fastbloke - sshhh... my other half reads this board, and I use this excuse to have complete peace and tranquility whilst in the car, she's not allowed to speak while I drive!

 

Agreed Fast Bloke

Hands free set with voice activated dialing is the same as a conversation with a passenger.

But a few months ago I posted about a woman travelled beside in rush hour traffic on the M6. For half an hour if she wasn't in a conversation on her mobile, she was brushing her hair, putting on lipstick, doing er nails or drinking from a 1lt bottle of water.

As a result she was drifting from her lane and totally oblivious to all around her. Conclusion, anything women choose to do whilst behind the wheel has absolutely no effect on their driving.

 

Heh - is there something you aren't telling us. When I try to search it says I can't, so there

I think changing CD's should be made illegal while you are driving. Even if there hasn't been an accident yet, it's only a matter of time before someone loses control when they climb into the boot to get to the autochanger

 

Isn't the "interpretted" law...

Anything that the driver does that may distract him from safely operating his vehicle can be construed as "Driving without due care & attention".

Arguable for certain things I'm sure but depends if plod wants to lay the letter of the law,not the spirit.

Besides, if I could prove that the person who crashed into me was lighting a *** when it happened, I would be more likely to win the case.