Mobile phones whilst driving

[obi_waynne]

What are your thoughts? Do you switch on airplane mode when driving?

Have you been tempted to text or call whilst driving before or after it was illegal (although driving with due care and attention is always a requirement.)

When you see a car weaving around the lane do you assume it's a mobile phone/sat nav user?

 

[Lunchmoney]

When you see a car weaving around the lane do you assume it's a mobile phone/sat nav user?

I assume twat of some kind. Depending on the time of day/night I often assume drink. Either way if I see someone weaving erratically I get away from them - either drop back, take a different route, or get passed them asap.

Have you been tempted to text or call whilst driving before or after it was illegal (although driving with due care and attention is always a requirement.)

Nope. I dont put the phone on airplane mode, but I dont answer any calls either. If it's important they will leave a message, which I'll listen to later and call them back. Text messages can wait, if it were important they'd call. If they repeatedly call it's probably important and time to pull over, turn off engine and answer the phone.

 

[rdp50734]

My phone is connected via bluetooth to the stereo.

I do answer if it rings.

I never read/send texts whist driving.

 

[T9 man]

My phone is connected via Bluetooth also and I do answer calls when they arrive. Texting while driving is for those who wish an early death.

 

[gladrags]

There's a guy who lives not far from me, he's confined to a wheelchair. He doesn't have the power of his legs and I think his left hand/arm is withered. He has a specially modified VW van so he can drive the wheelchair in the back door then drive the van.

I was on foot, waiting to cross the road when he drove by yesterday and I was absolutely staggered to see him texting while he was driving. Unbelievable.

 

[T9 man]

^^ Blimey!

I know the Ford system allows you to text verbally, as does the system in the Rolls Royce Wraith and one of the car phone kit manufacturers called Bury.

 

[TCJBOLDIE]

Sadly mobile phones/electronic gizmos has become an addiction as one only has to observe people going about their everyday lives and there they are head down walking,crossing roads,sitting,. driving while on their phones many with headphones in both ears which IMO renders them even more switched off from what is happening around them.

It seems that all economic backgrounds are afflicted with no cure in sight

 

[T9 man]

It seems that all economic backgrounds are afflicted with no cure in sight

Such is the way of the world Rad!

 

[TCJBOLDIE]

At times not all that is called "progress" is good in all circumstances.

 

[obi_waynne]

The first priority is switching drivers brains on rather than switching phones off!

 

[T9 man]

The first priority is switching drivers brains on rather than switching phones off!

Well said Obi

 

[gladrags]

I saw a news item about lorry driver Tomasz Kroker who smashed into stationary traffic and killed a mother and three children because he was scrolling through his music on a mobile phone. It's deplorable and a disaster but before I condemned him I thought of the times, especially in a strange car, when I've been looking down at the dash for the heater or air con controls or something then look up and see traffic stopped in front of me or a parked car or something. 30mph is 44ft per second so you only need to be distracted for a split second and tragedy can happen.

 

[T9 man]

^^ Read the same article earlier. So sad! I see the Judge gave him 10 years for the crime.

 

[gladrags]

From another BBC news item a couple of years ago:

Caroline Hoy who knocked down and killed an elderly couple by overtaking at a pedestrian crossing has been jailed. Bob and Rose Simpson, aged 87 and 84, died when they were knocked down by Caroline Hoy in Largs, Ayrshire, in August 2013. Hoy, of Saltcoats, was jailed for 16 months after admitting driving without due care and attention.

She had been angered by the slowness of the car in front and sped past glaring at the driver and making hand gestures. She failed to spot Mr and Mrs Simpson, who had been married for 66 years, as they were crossing the road. Mr Simpson was killed outright while his wife was airlifted to Glasgow's Southern General Hospital, where she later died.

CCTV images showed Hoy's red Toyota speeding through Largs at 43mph in a 30mph zone.

I thought this woman deserved MUCH longer than that, you get four times that kind of sentence for stealing money. She had already been sentenced to anger management classes for a previous. If I had been the judge she would never have been allowed to drive again.

 

[obi_waynne]

People still assume it won't happen to them and it's only for a split second.

 

[Rudders666]

Bluetooth certainly helps. If a text comes through you can tap the centre console to listen to it instead of having to avert your gaze from the road. Same with switching music, as soon as the phone is connected the steering wheel controls do it all. Phone calls are again the same and everything can be done without looking away from the road. I've occasionally answered a message but only when stuck at lights etc never at speed, nothing's that important tbf. People that swerve all over the place whilst pissing about on their phones really piss me off and you can see them a mile away not paying attention and veering here, there n everywhere. Bugs me