Using Mobile Whilst Driving

shrek101

Last week I saw an idiot van driver sweaving in my street, I immediately thought to myself, bet that idiot is using a mobile, how right I was. If I hadnt been learnt to look well ahead and observe the road, and drivers behaviour I may have bene hit by that idiot, he was a tradesman plumber.

If I had my way I would give a ban on drivers who do this. From what I seen it seems to be mainly tradesman, parcel delivery, and young woman with children who a freqent offenders.

I think using even a hands free mobile kit is still dangerous and should have been out lawed to.

SnowyOwl_2

Yeah, totally agree Shrek..I saw a bus driver today dialling away on his silver mobile, bus was in the meantime moving over a pedestrian crossing. Sometimes I wish I had a camera to hand then I'd take 2 photos...one to send to the police, the other to send to the employer. It really does take the p!ss when someone who relies on having their licence to work blatently breaking the law, never mind the obvious chances they are taking with other peoples lives.

miss_lisalou

sunflower wrote:

it really annoys me to see people using mobile phones whilst driving

but i dont think it should be illegal to use a mobile whilst parked - cant really see the logic in that bit

e.g. i need to make an phonecall whilst on a journey but if i pull over and sit in the car to make the call - i am breaking the law?
but if i park the car, get out of it and make the call thats ok?
what if its dark and am in a rough area?

sorry for hijacking the nick's thread like...

Sunflower, if you pull over, say into a layby, with handbrake on etc then it should be fine as it's clear you are not making any effort to drive at the time, which would not be the case if you were pulled up waiting for traffic lights etc. It's also lawful to use a handheld phone whilst driving in extreme emergencies, eg. to report a major obstruction in the road when it's impractical to pull over and stop, or if another vehicle is following you in a road rage incident, for instance. The law was introduced to reduce accidents by preventing blatant misuse of unnecessarily using the phone whilst driving

ReductionQueen

shrek101 wrote:

Last week I saw an idiot van driver sweaving in my street, I immediately thought to myself, bet that idiot is using a mobile, how right I was. If I hadnt been learnt to look well ahead and observe the road, and drivers behaviour I may have bene hit by that idiot, he was a tradesman plumber.

If I had my way I would give a ban on drivers who do this. From what I seen it seems to be mainly tradesman, parcel delivery, and young woman with children who a freqent offenders.

I think using even a hands free mobile kit is still dangerous and should have been out lawed to.

So I suppose that you would ban people for talking to thier passengers, too. I agree that using a hand-held mobile IS very dangerous, and I use a hands free at ALL times, never unplug it as inevetibly it's not plugged in when a call comes in. BUT there are just as many more dangerous things that drivers do that have not been singled out, such as talking to thier kids in the back seat.
Incedentaly, I think that younge guys with hot hatches are bigger culprits at talking on thier phones.

Nick_A_2

miss_lisalou wrote:

Sunflower, if you pull over, say into a layby, with handbrake on etc then it should be fine as it's clear you are not making any effort to drive at the time, which would not be the case if you were pulled up waiting for traffic lights etc. It's also lawful to use a handheld phone whilst driving in extreme emergencies, eg. to report a major obstruction in the road when it's impractical to pull over and stop, or if another vehicle is following you in a road rage incident, for instance. The law was introduced to reduce accidents by preventing blatant misuse of unnecessarily using the phone whilst driving

Actually, your engine has to be switched of.....

Nick.

Altarf

Nick_A wrote:

Actually, your engine has to be switched of.....

What really really annoys me is the people who don't want to use their mobile whilst driving, but won't turn it off either.

So what do they do when it rings to be 'legal'. That's it they just stop. Wherever they are. Whether it is a sensible place to stop or not.

lady_noluck

Incedentaly, I think that younge guys with hot hatches are bigger culprits at talking on thier phones.

I have to disagree, if it's not white van men it's bus/coach drivers. Or even worse, snooty german car owners that think they own the road just because their car cost more than my annual salary.
And there are more dangerous things to be doing like lighting a cigarette or brushing your hair whilst driving, but that still doesn't condone it.

I'm sick of having near misses becuase someones phone call is more important than concentrating on their driving. If it's that important, pull over!

ReductionQueen

lady_noluck wrote:

I have to disagree, if it's not white van men it's bus/coach drivers. Or even worse, snooty german car owners that think they own the road just because their car cost more than my annual salary.
And there are more dangerous things to be doing like lighting a cigarette or brushing your hair whilst driving, but that still doesn't condone it.

I'm sick of having near misses becuase someones phone call is more important than concentrating on their driving. If it's that important, pull over!

Have I mentioned that I am not white van man, but blue van woman? As I said, I ALWAYS use a headset, which is no more dangerous than talking to somebody next to you, IMO.

Jay-Jay_4

We don't see many people on the phone whilst driving where we live but a few weeks ago we went to Blackburn and couldn't believe the amount of people we saw doing it.

There was a chap driving an auto recovery vehicle with a car on the back, a council worker in a huge van and a council mini-bus driver......all behind each other at the same set of traffic lights :mad:

I use a bluetooth headset if I need to answer a call, I just press the button on the earpiece to answer and then to disconnect. I wear it most of the time when I drive and if I don't have it on I don't answer the phone.

ReductionQueen

Jay-Jay wrote:

We don't see many people on the phone whilst driving where we live but a few weeks ago we went to Blackburn and couldn't believe the amount of people we saw doing it.

There was a chap driving an auto recovery vehicle with a car on the back, a council worker in a huge van and a council mini-bus driver......all behind each other at the same set of traffic lights :mad:

I use a bluetooth headset if I need to answer a call, I just press the button on the earpiece to answer and then to disconnect. I wear it most of the time when I drive and if I don't have it on I don't answer the phone.

Hear hear (pardon the pun)! What is it with so-called professional drivers (and remember my last post on this thread)?