to wish a fiery and agonising death upon people who use mobile phones...

[Scarydragontalk]

...while driving. I don't mean hands-free sets, I mean holding their phones normally, chatting away or godforfuckingbid texting at 70+mph on the motorway. I just don't think they should be allowed to live. AIBU?

This approach improves the gene pool though.

Darwinism in action.

Thing is, people who have lots of near misses (IME) tend to think they are excellent drivers because they think they're invincible, or that they've averted the crash by their own fantastic driving

Also a friend of XP's used to refuse to wear a seatbelt. He said it was because he was tall and seatbelts are counterproductive for tall people.

Hate it when people "wear" seatbelts but put the diagonal part behind them too. Why? You may as well not wear one.

YANBU, can we also add muppets that pull up at any old place to answer their phones.

Yes I mean you, woman in white Audi who decides just after a blind bend is an appropriate place to answer your phone. Don't you know someone was killed on those bends yesterday morning and its rather disconcerting at 50mph to have a car coming straight towards you as their having to overtake you.

I used a mobile phone in a traffic jam yesterday

To be fair the whole road was jam-packed a fair distance ahead and I just wanted to call work and tell them I was coming in. I would certainly not have done it if the traffic had been moving or even looked likely to move any time soon.

I have too.
I was on the M27 and called a friend to get my kids
which was fine till she waved to me from 8 cars in front in the same jam!
lots of us were late that day

and if people call me I either miss the call or say "I'm driving I'll call you back"
as my phone is a clamshell that answers by flicking it open and hangs up when I close it

Nobody calls me while I'm driving, ever, because I have the thing switched off and tucked in my handbag.

Annie
I used to but now kids are at secondary school I have to be ready for the panicked "come and get me " calls

Annie and TalkinPeace If you can afford a phone and a car you can afford a hands-free. And even then it should only be used to answer calls: preferably to say I'll call you back. Not to make calls unless (perhaps) it does voice recognition.

Ah, but Andrew, the point in my case is that I don't want people ringing me up while I'm driving. Hands-free would remove the excuse

My sister has one, which means she can call me whenever she's driving - blow-by-blow accounts of her journey down the motorway a speciality, and "oh I'm just going to turn into the car park now so I'm going to have to ring off in a minute, what do you mean £1.50, no not you I'm talking to the attendant, hang on a minute while I rummage in my bag, no not you I'm talking to my sister". Believe me, this is not a good thing.

Annie - you're right. Turn the bloody thing off.

Andrew
I would use hands free - except that then I'd be tempted to use the phone in the car and it scares me the lack of attentiveness I see from drivers who are clearly on hands free
also DH and I swap cars almost daily and have different phones so the connectors would always be in the wrong car (the chargers normally are)

I'll stick to mostly missing the calls
much simpler

and I DID get annoyed with the number of chaps in the car park at the gym speeding, on phones, in the dark in a car park that has children hurtling.

Well, there I was in the Quiet Coach ready to sally forth, and no one used a mobile, talked loudly or even slurped their tea on a 2 hour trip.

They must have felt my vibes...

"Well as whatmeworry is therefore driving uninsured (not wearing a seatbelt invalidates insurance)"

Bah humbug and cotton wool culture. My decision, my risk.

bollocks
if some other poor bugger gets hit by you

Take the risk if you want, so long as you don't harm anyone else. Hopefully the insurance invalidation doesn't extend to 3rd party liability cover ... if it does hope you don't mind losing your savings or house.

Of course you might take seatbelts more seriously if you'd seen the chap I saw when visiting my dad in hospital once. Eye ward. Lost his sight due to not having his seatbelt on ... on his own driveway.

GrimmaTheNome
"Take the risk if you want, so long as you don't harm anyone else"

That includes me, since I am a taxpayer and resent having to contribute to the cost of your ambulance, ITU, plastic surgery and potentially a lifetime of care, caused by your thoughtless folly.

On the other hand, your actions might be welcomed by people waiting for an organ transplant.

I would agree, BUT, the chances of YOU dying a fiery agonising death alongside them because of their carelessness is very high. Therefore I don't wish death upon them, but do wish someone would knock some sense into that tiny little spongey thing inside that thick skull of theirs.

That's also what surgeons call drivers who don't wear seatbelts (and bikers).

"Donors"

whatmeworry you and everyone like you are incredibly selfish. End of.

Whatmeworry, don't fret, it won't last. Sooner rather than later some twat in the Quiet Coach will start a shouty mindless mobile-phone conversation just as the train pulls out, and you will be able to sally forth full steam ahead (if that's not mixing too many or too weird metaphors).

Scary I couldnt agree more - woman nearly drove into another car yesterday at junction near our house. She had 2 kids in the car too