Drive Aware Course (Mobile Phone)

ab1982

I answered the phone whilst driving my wife's car without a hands-free kit a few weeks back. It was on an industrial estate and I got pulled over by an undercover police car.

I have the option to attend a drive aware course for £100 or 3 points and £100 fine.

Has anybody ever attended one of these for mobile phone use? What can I expect?

ChumLee

You can expect half a day of being told the dangers of using a phone when driving and not get points on your licence.

ilikewatch

Free coffee and tea, no biscuits, plenty of fag breaks, a 4 hour lecture about the dangers of driving dangerously (may include "gritty" victim impact video statements) the class will probably be told that if everyone agrees you can skip the last break and leave half an hour early.

dannyrst

ilikewatch wrote: »

Free coffee and tea, no biscuits, plenty of fag breaks, a 4 hour lecture about the dangers of driving dangerously (may include "gritty" victim impact video statements) the class will probably be told that if everyone agrees you can skip the last break and leave half an hour early.

Hardly free at £100.

ilikewatch

dannyrst wrote: »

Hardly free at £100.

Fair enough - "coffee and tea included, no biscuits".

Also, I forgot - you can also expect one or two of your fellow reprobates to spend the entire time banging on about how they never did whatever they're accused of and how they're going to sue the police for thousands of pounds in lost pay as they've had to take time away from their very important job to attend - these people will drive 5 series BMW's.

dannyrst

ilikewatch wrote: »

Fair enough - "coffee and tea included, no biscuits".

Also, I forgot - you can also expect one or two of your fellow reprobates to spend the entire time banging on about how they never did whatever they're accused of and how they're going to sue the police for thousands of pounds in lost pay as they've had to take time away from their very important job to attend - these people will drive 5 series BMW's.

Or they work at McDonalds and they were going to get their first star today, meaning they were allowed to go back to the "kitchen" and get trained on how to "cook" the "burgers".

ab1982

Thanks for the replies. To be honest I consider the £100 and lost time to be a !!!! head tax so will take my medicine. I did a speeding one years ago when I had a lot of points and found it useful and started to drive slower.

I just find phones so tempting especially if its ringing, I have hands free in my car so not such an issue. I cycle a lot too and I'd say at least half of drivers in a queue of traffic are tapping away on an iphone. I was hoping they would tell us some techniques for making sure you're not tempted - I suppose the only tip is put the phone in the boot.

ChumLee

ab1982 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. To be honest I consider the £100 and lost time to be a !!!! head tax so will take my medicine. I did a speeding one years ago when I had a lot of points and found it useful and started to drive slower.

I just find phones so tempting especially if its ringing, I have hands free in my car so not such an issue. I cycle a lot too and I'd say at least half of drivers in a queue of traffic are tapping away on an iphone. I was hoping they would tell us some techniques for making sure you're not tempted - I suppose the only tip is put the phone in the boot.

So you of all people will have a good idea of what to expect. Maybe you'll learn from this latest course.

ab1982

ChumLee wrote: »

So you of all people will have a good idea of what to expect. Maybe you'll learn from this latest course.

Is it the same as the speeding one?

ChumLee

ab1982 wrote: »

Is it the same as the speeding one?

You tell us when you've done it.

ab1982

ChumLee wrote: »

You tell us when you've done it.

Sure will, thanks for your input.