Deep Singh

Don't know about you but I still see plenty of people driving whilst using hand helds. Stupid tart up my **** today taking a roundabout whilst laughing her head off into her mobile.

I'm turning into a grumpy old man but why is it acceptable to do this when its not acceptable to be swigging on a can of beer whilst driving?

I know I'll get flamed for this but most of the offenders seem to be women. They just can't stop bloody talking!

AudiLover

and the thing is they are crap drivers even without having to be on the phone, never mind when they are on it.

SteveScooby

iTrader: (2)

Get caught on your mobile: 3 points and £60
Get caught drink driving: Ban, fine and points

That's why more people are willing to risk it

Moley

iTrader: (9)

Before i even finished your thread i was going to reply about women being the worst for it.

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

I reported someone to the police on Tuesday for talking on the phone without having a single hand on the steering wheel, tailgating and threatening behaviour when I signalled that I thought they were a ******.

*shrug*

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

What pi sses me off nearly as much is the stupid places idiots pull over to use their phones. Had some idiot stop on a blind bend the other day to take a call

The Snug Rhino

or....


Mobile 3 points
Speeding 3 points

Considering everyone speeds (despite cameras making it FAR higher risk of being caught than using a phone) i think its safe to say the laws make NO difference.

eldudereno

Most t*ssers that I've spotted using their mobiles have had ideal opportunities to pull over or to not even drive off in the first place.

Did anyone else see the cops programme on bbc1 a few weeks back when a 23 year old women was killed when queuing in traffic when some arseh*le lorry driver who was actually playing with his mobile crashed into the back of her? The young woman's car was totally crushed by the lorry as she waited in a rush hour tailback.

BBC NEWS | England | Hampshire | Mobile phone death driver jailed

The traffic cop that visited the family home shortly afterwards to inform the family nearly exploded on his way back to the scene of the accident when he came across one woman on her phone and another idiot who was driving along the hard shoulder to bypass the queues.

SteveScooby

iTrader: (2)

Unless you get caught 4 times and get banned

dpb

lets jus hope women *can* multi task

Still absolutly no excuse - 3 points aint enuff,full-stop

Stephb1986

ok so talking on the phone and speeding and drinking and such like are fineable and pointable so why the frig do they let people smoke and drive???? surely thats more dangerous due to it being petrol and a lit cig??? i just dont get it to be honest say you drop a cig when driving on your lap or something you look down there could be some old biddy crossing the road and they could get run over and they are more bothered about talking on the phone i think people should get a grip and see that smoking is more dangerous!

X30NGO

i am always surprised how rarely i see young drivers talking on the phone. It's definately something they do do right on the roads. Ususally, it's 40 somethings in the volvo's with the suit jackets hanging in the back that are nattering away which pisses me off.

serega

Not so long ago it was absolutely ok to talk on the phone and drive and everything was fine - now suddenly you are prepared to hang the person you see talking on the phone while driving.

So someone crashes while talking on the phone or playing with his phone, there are millions more people crashing every day without talking on the phone, but you dont see the media writing horror stories about how someone just crashed and killed someone while he was concentrating on his driving - should we maybe just ban every person who is trying to concentrate on his driving?

For some people it takes alot of concentration to switch gears - should we ban manual gearboxes ? Smoking a cig, talking with a passenger, checking the rear view mirrors, trying to avoid a pothole, looking out of the window - ffs everything is a distraction, why dont we all just cycle.

Some people are just worse drivers and cant concentrate on the road as well as others. Driving IS dangerous and accidents DO happen for various reasons and it is dumb to assume that if someone is talking on the phone he is going to crash, in fact when you start to pay attention to him talking on the phone and start to show him off or shout at him or what else - have you stopped to think that you have much less concentration on the road than he does!

You guys are so affected by that media brain-washing that you are unable to form your own thoughts without reading the news or watching the tv.
They say that they made a study and shown that talking on the phone increases crash rates - well i can safely say without making any studies that more people crash while not doing anything other than concentrating on driving than people who talk on the phone and drive - so can we please ban everyone from driving ?.

In most contries its ok to talk on the phone and they live fine. In germany its ok to exceed speeds of 180mph in certain areas and they seem to be fine with it. The whole point of this system is to rob you of your freedom and then make money off you when you are trying to have some of it.

scoobynutta555

FWIW I do not use a mobile when driving. However I do agree with the post above. Dangerous driving is dangerous driving, whether the driver is on the phone or not. People should be pulled for bad driving or severly punished if their antics contribute to an accident.

r32

Sadly when you see some one driving badly, running over the white line, cutting corners, driving eratically etc etc they are almost always on the dog and bone, it does seem to me that it affects driving ability considerably.

suprabeast

try watching these sorts of people when they are not on the the phone.
You may find they are just as useless....

Pagan

Woman outside our office nearly had a courier off his bike - yup she was on the mobile. Biker was very sweary at her

mad_dr

No - just the sub-standard (see the definition of 'sub-standard' before replying) drivers. If they can't control their vehicle, then by definition, they should not be on the road.

Hmm - that's one solution, but it's over the top. You should be able to be a good enough driver to be able to perform certain additional tasks that the government allows cars to be manufactured with (windows, radio, seats etc), without compromising safety. I can put down an electric window without it lowering my concentration on the road to a level that makes it dangerous. The same can be said for talking to a passenger (providing they don't bore you to sleep). Where the line is drawn (with mobile phone conversations on the other side of the line) is down to testing that has been done to identify the amount of concentration that is required. I'm not aware of testing that has been carried out to show that checking a rear view mirror requires as much concentration as holding a phone to your head and talking into it, straining to hear the other party...[/QUOTE]

Surely you agree then that these people ^ do not meet the standards required to drive on our roads, so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make? If you don't meet the standards when NOT on a phone, you certainly shouldn't have a license to drive.

I'd more likely say "It is not guaranteed that (s)he is going to crash, but it has been proven that they are a great deal more likely to crash and therefore (as per the Road Wars evidence above) undisputedly, sefishly put others at risk"

You conveniently don't mention anything specific about the level of abuse given to the phone-user. If I mouth "get off your (expletive deleted) phone!" to someone, you can't seriously believe that I have used more concentration than they are. Or why is it that I have the awareness to see that they're on the phone, but they don't even bat an eyelid as they sail past chattering away, one hand changing gear, the other hand on the phone pressed against their head?

I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but I think that this is a completely pointless comment - by your reckoning we should all steer with our knees because (probably) there will still be more people being killed by other means, than by this... Surely you understand that the idea is that ANYTHING can can be done to reduce the chance of an accident SHOULD be done?! Even if it only prevents a single death. Or do you think "sod it - people die in cars - we might as well do whatever we like - a few more deaths won't raise the statistics much"?

Any evidence of this? Or maybe - the UK is just one of the few places that have done research and come to a reliable conclusion that using a hand-held phone, presents a risk and should not be done. The other countries you refer to undoubtedly have deaths/accidents caused by phone use whilst driving - they simply either don't report it, or (because of their much-worse driving standards and accident-rates anyway) the phone-related deaths do not pose as high a percentage of causes.

And I'm sure that you're well aware that this only takes place in areas that have been specifically designed to make this practise safe to a level that the transport authority deem to be acceptable. In terms of phone-use whilst driving - the equivalent would be to give us cars made from marshmallow and have them fixed to a track in the road, unable to lose control or collide with anything.

I don't agree with fines for traffic offenses either - purely because it only serves to fuel opinion such as yours above, which reduces the effect of the laws in question. If the police really want people to believe that the laws are there to PROTECT us (and - despite what you have convinced yourself of, in the majority of cases, they are) - they should drop the fines from the penalties and sort out the points scheme to make it more effective.

Anyway - it's nice that we can share our opinions on here - I do hope that you've noticed that although I disagree with your opinion, I have given honest, polite reasons why.

Norman D. Landing

100% Agreement.

Bodgit

The one that always annoys me are the main culprits for talking on the phones are women or business types in top end mercs, BMW's, Audis etc. If they can afford the car brand new, why cant they afford a car kit.
Perhaps it's where they think they are above the law.

Norman D. Landing

A few thoughts,

How many people do you see walking into each other while on mobiles?

Should it be illegal to use a sun visor mirror whilst driving? (Lipstick/Electric Shaver) You've seem em!

Should people be allowed to have children below the age of 10 in the back seat who wont shut up?

Smokers? (The age old 'butt in your lap' conundrum).

Music?

Tidy blondes with puppies almost fallig out driving convertibles? They usually ruin my concentration ! They should be illegal!

Daydreaming?! We need brain implants !

etc

lozgti

well,I still think we have to much in the way of distractions in cars.Have to confess to being distracted by my Sat Nav when I use it.

I think driving should be just that.Not treating your car as a mobile office/beauty parlour/cafe/gentlemans smoking room etc.

Mind you,how on earth did we all ever survive without mobile phones bleedin things

DCI Gene Hunt

Queens 'Bohemian Rhapsody' should be feckin banned.... everytime I hear it I start the Waynes World stylee head nodding.... just can't keep my eye's on the road

Jerome

A friend of mine regularly uses her phone, to not just talk, but to send text messages as well. How she hasn't killed herself or someone else I don't know. She has just got a Merc SL and exceeds the speed limit massively all the time. When she does hit something while using the phone, it is going to be messy.

Daft Lad

Agree 100% with that, I seem to encounter at least 2 of these morons every day on the country roads I have to use between home and work. This morning some **** in a Hilux just stopped at the side of the road to take a call, heavy fog with no lights on and just on the exit of a blind corner

Some people must just panic when their phone rings and pull over at the side of the road regardless of common sense!!

Suresh

A lot of people cycle (to work) in Holland. Even before 7am people are merrily cycling along and chatting on their mobiles. They're not concentrating either. Invariably is is younger women who do this. I couldn't for the life of me imagine who they could all be calling at 0645 in the morning, until it dawned on me that they are calling each other!



P.S. Jerome - hope this idiot friend of yours hits a tree, real soon.

Geezer

The difference between using a phone whilst driving and other activities is that the person attheother end of the line cannot see what you are doing, and so cannot empathise with the situation to allow you to keep your concentration.

If I am driving, I am aware of what is happening on the road, and all things being equal, I can do other things because I can assess how safe it is etc. Also, a passenger in the car with me is also aware of what is going on, and can either assist, or will not make a statement like "darling, I'm gay and am leaving you for for Helga the German shot putter. I have faked all my orgasms, needle dick" whilst you are in a particularly dangerous or protentially dangerous situation.

The cigarette scenario is quite valid though, because if a lit one drops, into your lap, even the most disciplined driver will react to stop it burning them, or the set etc.

Speeding is not a good analogy to use when compared to other law breaking activities like being on the phone, as speed in itself is not dangerous. What is more dangerous, 95 mph on the M1 at 3 in the morning, or 28mph past a school at 0850 in thick fog? Also, you can speed and be in total control of the car, with full concentration, this is simply not the case when on the phone. Obviously speeding psat that school is dangerous, but that is inappropriate speed, but then again, being on the phone whilst driving is always inappropriate, it is always distracting. Even hands free sets can be, all they do is allow you to keep 2 hands on the wheel!

As for the previous comment about other countries considering it safe, well, so what? If another country considered rape accetpable, would it make it accetpable here? Other countries allow things we do not consider acceptable, and vice versa, it's irrelevant. Go and live there then!

Geezer