...and I'm sure you can drink 10 pints and drive with no ill effects either :Whatever_.

'Texting' or otherwise using a non-hands free phone in a car whilst driving is incredibly dangerous. It drastically lowers your reaction times, and diverts your attention from the road. It's a proven fact, and nobody is exempt, no matter what you might think.

Personally if it were up to me I'd ban the hands free kits as well. IMO, if you are driving a car, your full attention should be on the road and not on the phone.

Well that's being a little flippant. I would put the figure at about 4 for me before any measureable effect. I am confident that after 10 pints I would still be able to achieve the standard of some OAP's on the road, who are there, of course, completely legally!

What of all the other possible diversions then? Why just phones? IF someone is doing ANYTHING that is making their driving dangerous then they should be held responsible. There really is no need to start banning specific things because it is an inexhaustible list!!!

I would not expect to be fined for doing something that was not making my driving dangerous however, and despite what you may think there are circumstances when people can use a phone whilst driving safely, just as there are circumstances when using a phone can cause an accident.

There is a law against driving without due care and attention. This takes care of people who are on the phone AND driving badly. If they aren't driving badly then what is the problem?

But since you feel so strongly that each activity that could possibly cause a distraction should be specifically banned whilst driving, why don't you compile a list.... this should be amusing. :D

I feel strongly about this because I have a relative who was pretty badly injured after being hit by someone who was driving whilst texting on their phone, (luckily they're ok now). The driver of that car claimed it didn't effect their driving as well.

Doing anything whilst driving can be dangerous. Eating, drinking, playing around with the radio, doing your makeup, reading the paper etc. Anything that takes your attention away from the road is potentially lethal.

Now obviously you can't legislate against them all with seperate laws, but some of these activities divert your attention away from the road more than others, and texting is one of those. The problem is that there have been so many accidents where mobile phones have been one of the major contributing causes, that something had to be done to alert the general public to the dangers. They were ignoring the "dangerous driving" law, so something more concrete and obvious had to be put in place. (Although I'm not sure it's having much effect).

It has been proven that using a mobile whilst driving is actually worse than drink driving. For example (one quick example, although other more in depth studies have been done)....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1885775.stm

Although ajm, I'm sure you are some sort of driving god who is never affected by the same things as us mere mortals....

Oh, bluetooth headsets are great!

Conversation with boss:
BOSS "Do you understand everything I've told you?"
YOU "Just give me the bottom line. Do I still have a job?"
<BEEP!> Bluetooth connection lost

Conversation with Client:
CLIENT "Before I go, is there any other information you need about tomorrow's meeting>"
YOU "What time you need me to be there?"
CLIENT <silence>
YOU "Hello?"
YOU "Can you still hear me?"
CLIENT "Hello?"
YOU "Hello?"
CLIENT "Helloooooooo?"
<click. Brrrrrrrrrr>

Conversation with girl you met previous night
YOU "So do you want to meet me tonight then?"
GIRL "I...."
<Beeeeep!!> Headset battery depleted

I'm sorry to hear about your relative, but by citing this personal example you are demonstrating exactly how knee-jerk reactions work.

How about watching TV? No law against that. Playstation?

You need a policeman to see you on the phone in order to get fined. That same officer can stop you if he sees you swerving around on the road as you put your hair curlers in. I cannot see any reason to specify why one should be banned and the other not.

If driving without due care/dangerous driving is not being applied correctly to people who do daft things in cars then maybe they are the laws that need revisiting and extended publicity.

The effect of this law will of course be minimal, and will inconvenience decent people. People will be fined for parking up to make a call on stupid technicalities such as leaving the engine running, even though they are NO danger.

Maybe this proves the drink driving limit is set too low? (hey, if you can be flippant... ;) )

I'm sure I cannot be the only one who is able to apply common sense to my driving without having each and every action specifically forbidden or permitted for me.

IMHO Smoking whilst driving is by far the most dangerous distraction, far more so than being on the phone or eating and drinking, you can drop a phone, food or drink and you will only need to clean up the mess, if you drop a fag you stand a good chance of setting the car alight, not to mention the distarction of locating the cigarette, and lighting it in the first place. Then most scummy smokers lob the butt out the window thus causing litter. I have a Nokia HFK installed in my scooby and the only complaint I have with it is the volume is not loud enough through the standard speaker, if it went through the stereo speakers then it would be ideal. It mutes the stereo so why can it not play through the speakers aswell.

Totally agreed with that.

The worst thing is when you get sticky lips, you take a pull on the fag and try to remove it from your mouth, but it stays where it is. Your fingers pull the hot "cherry" off the end of the fag and it lands between your legs. You then have to deal with the situation whilst choking and nursing burnt fingers. Dangerous as hell!

Don't you hate it when that happens :D:D:D

I am all for losing your cherry in the car but not whilst driving it could be a HUGE distraction :D and as for having a fag between your legs! well that is just a big no no :D

Maybe you can, and maybe you can't, I don't know. I'm sure everyone you asked would say that.

All I know is that in every study performed, on large cross sections of the population (both here, in Europe, and in the USA), phone usage is shown to drastically affect driving ability, increasing reaction times, stopping distances etc.

If you can still drive without being affected then good for you. But laws like this have to be written to cover the majority not the minority. There are many many bad drivers out there (more than good drivers in my experience) which when you add a phone into the equation become lethal weapons. There is a law needed to catch and stop these people from doing any damage.

Any law like this is going to affect some people negatively, but if it succeeds in reducing the amount of deaths (and more importantly the chance of one of these twits running into me on the road), then I'm all for it.

Just to lighten it up.....


Remember that old one about the biker in the fast lane on motorway - draws alongside truck in middle lane, bangs on drivers door and asks for a light. Truck driver screams at him "you'll bloody kill yourself pal". To which biker replies

"Doubt it guv', I only smoke 2 a day".

:D

:D

http://www.bash.org/?195969

Interesting that both the reported mobile phone related crashes on this thread involved TEXTING, a process that requires looking at the screen, wheras having a conversation does not.