new tougher rules for mobile phone users

shaun_from_Africa

Will encourage people to pull over for their converstions, benefits are that you don't distract the driver whilst their driving.

That's clause should be removed, there is no reason what so ever to touch a mobile device whilst driving. what scenario would warrant such thing?
many modern phones come with Bluetooth to connect said phone to said vehicle. most vehicle has crash emergency systems anyway that dial emergency services in the event of an accident.

Simple like alarm systems manufacturers can have sensors within the vehicle to dectect the phones signal within the cab itself and not outside of it.

A/ If a driver is distracted by a rear seat passenger on the phone, maybe they shouldn't be driving in the first place.
Do you really think that anytime that a passenger wants to use a mobile, the car should pull over?
What about on motorways, dual carriageways or simply in heavy traffic where pulling over can't be done?

B/ So, if a relative of yours was being hounded by a road rage driver and they felt threatened, you would be happy for them to pull over?

C/ Detecting phone signals within a vehicle isn't the problem, it's inhibiting the phone from transmitting that is.
The only two ways to do this are either to make the car impermeable to the frequencies used by phones, something that would be very hard (and expensive) to do with most cars and impossible to do with open or soft top cars or to have a mobile phone jammer, the output of which couldn't be contained completely within the vehicle concerned.

shaun_from_Africa

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

most vehicle has crash emergency systems anyway that dial emergency services in the event of an accident

Most vehicles? Some maybe but certainly not most.

stator

Very silly. Politicians always do this and it never works. Increasing the sentance for something never solves anything.

If you really want to stop the problem we have to look towards technology. If your phone had a 'car mode' as well as airplane mode and it automatically entered that mode when you are driving a car, the problem could be eliminated completely.
All cars should be fitted with a device that only starts the car once the driver is identified. You could do this via your mobile or via your driving licence. You could even have a display on the outside of the car that indicates who the driver is alongside the number plate. Wouldn't have to be human readable but something that could be caught on camera.

Biggles

Increasing the penalties will help but all that will really work is increased likelihood of being caught.

That's why drink/driving happens less - if you're stopped you can be proved to have been drinking. Speeding happens less due to cameras, but would happen even less if they went back to being hidden.

There needs to be some kind of camera system that can record drivers on the phone. I can see oncoming drivers using their phone, so it can't be too hard, but it would obviously have to be foolproof.

Mercdriver

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

most vehicle has crash emergency systems anyway that dial emergency services in the event of an accident.

If you blocked the signal, how would you be able to use this feature?

D'oh!

pogofish

Ever stricter laws/rules simply won't work if there is no will to actually enforce them.

My experience is that the current regs were initially very well respected for a short period - until people realised that beyond a couple of token cases, police were not actually interested in doing anything about it.

Then they went back to doing just what they did before.

Changing the social perception of using a mobile phone when driving is the way forward.

neilmcl

pogofish wrote: »

Ever stricter laws/rules simply won't work if there is no will to actually enforce them.

There's plenty of "will to enforce" the rules but unfortunately not the manpower.

pogofish wrote: »

My experience is that the current regs were initially very well respected for a short period - until people realised that beyond a couple of token cases, police were not actually interested in doing anything about it

I'm not sure I agree with this at all.

GingerBob_3

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37389800


its not enough I say

And what would be enough? A life sentence?


Last time I saw someone using a mobile while driving it was a police officer in a patrol car. So maybe police officers should face tougher penalties than the rest of us.

GingerBob_3

Biggles wrote: »

Increasing the penalties will help but all that will really work is increased likelihood of being caught.

That's why drink/driving happens less - if you're stopped you can be proved to have been drinking. Speeding happens less due to cameras, but would happen even less if they went back to being hidden.

There needs to be some kind of camera system that can record drivers on the phone. I can see oncoming drivers using their phone, so it can't be too hard, but it would obviously have to be foolproof.

I've got it! Our own (compulsory) surveillance camera, attached to a collar round our neck. Twenty-four hour feed to the police. Think of that. Virtually all crime would be cleared up.

pogofish

neilmcl wrote: »

There's plenty of "will to enforce" the rules but unfortunately not the manpower.

I'm not sure I agree with this at all.

A near 50% drop in prosecutions/FPNs issued since 2009, despite no great evidence of any great change in usage and in my part of the country, its the joint lowest level of all. A mere 150 in 2014, almost all of which were issued during the one week in the year that officers were ordered to make the issue a priority.

Its not a matter of agreeing or not. The figures speak for themselves.