My colleague has been reported to school for using her mobile whilst driving?

[scottishegg]

Hi all a teacher at my daughters local school was driving through the local town apparently on her phone when driving and has been reported to our headteacher by another parent the head has taken no further action but just informed her she was seen ( she hasn't yet confirmed or denied this) It was on a weekend in her own vehicle (no one else was in the car)

Who's being unreasonable? The parent for reporting it or the staff member for doing it?

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

I bet loads of people have made phone calls / texted in a traffic jam. To tell someone they're late.

It's illegal.

But I bet loads of people have done it - and have done loads of other things in the car when stationary which are also a distraction. Like turning round to talk to the kids, resetting the Sat Nav, looking at a map.

Why is texting /making a call when the car is not moving in a jam so dangerous and illegal?

Obviously the teacher was in the wrong, but it sounds like this parent is a malicious twat with too much time on their hands.

As for 'the teacher will get the message that they cannot behave outside the law even in their own time...' that's all well & good but where do you draw the line? If driving when tired is as dangerous are we going to suggest a curfew for teachers? If someone witnesses a teacher supporting UKIP or getting tipsy on a Friday night do they need to be reported for not behaving appropriately even on their own time in case someone sees them setting a bad example?

The school I work at was on the receiving end of a persistent malicious complainant (to the extent that the LEA legal team had to get involved).

Several of us lived near the school & the complainant in question which was extremely stressful at the time.

Even school staff are entitled to a private life. If the complainant was that bothered they should have taken her number plate & reported to the police, not gone telling tales to the head.

"Like turning round to talk to the kids, resetting the Sat Nav, looking at a map.

Why is texting /making a call when the car is not moving in a jam so dangerous and illegal?"

If you'd care to dig them out, and I don't see why I should be the one to GTFY, there are various studies which show why phone use is more distracting than talking to people in the car (short version, more cues which enable you to stop talking to them and get on with things). Resetting the satnav can and does cause accidents and monkeying with it too much can see you being done for driving without due care and attention.

If you're in charge of a ton of metal and glass, is it really so much to ask that you concentrate when you're operating it? Can you think of any other heavy machinery (or indeed weapon) which we are so blasé about operating?

If you really want to call to say you're late, get a hands free kit. This will make you legal but use it sparingly, because it will still slow your reaction time.

This will make you legal but use it sparingly, because it will still slow your reaction time.

when the car is not moving in a jam

Does your reaction time matter when the car is not moving

It is illegal to use a mobile phone in stationary traffic.

It is not illegal to use a hands free phone at 70 mph.

I would imagine that the latter is far far more dangerous.

If it bothers you that much Orlando, campaign for a change in the law. If you're in charge of the car, you're in charge of it. At what speed do you think it starts to matter? When you release the handbrake? When you're in gear and thinking of moving forward? When you're crawling forward at 5mph? 10mph? Far clearer just to say that when you are in charge of the car, you don't use a hand held mobile. We managed perfectly OK with this until 20 years ago.

"It is not illegal to use a hands free phone at 70 mph."

It's not explicitly covered by the legislation that addresses mobile phone use. However, it is covered by traffic laws on driving with due care and attention and driving dangerously. This was the legislation originally used to deal with mobile use at the wheel. It was only once mobile use became so rife that it was specifically outlawed. So yes, if you were using a mobile at 70mph and a traffic cop saw you, you might well find yourself getting pulled over for it.

Do you think making a phone call in stationary traffic is dangerous ?

And deserves a phone call to the head teacher?

Or to the police?

I would imagine it is, because stationary traffic will, eventually, start to move.

As I said in my earlier post - dh and I now have a car that we can bluetooth our phones to, so we could use them hands-free, at 70mph, but we have taken the decision not to use this facility, as it doesn't feel safe.

I agree it was very dangerous to use a phone while driving. Doe soyur colleague ever take children to events in her own car as happens at some of my DC's school? If so it was entirely reasonable to report her to the Head. Otherwise I suspect it was meant to be a warning falling short of involving the police. I have done the same to an employer when cut up by a van driven by an employee - it seems potentially more effective and less harsh than ringing the police.

I commented to someone policey in the uk about the signal blockers and the speed beepers we have and they said it was a human rights issue...people had the choice to do those things. so there you go.

Using a phone whilst driving is illegal and dangerous. Even in a traffic jam, the traffic is usually still rolling slowly and I've seen several times where a car has run into the back of another in a traffic jam because the driver wasn't concentrating on what they were doing. No call is that important that it can''t wait whilst you are driving - that's what voicemail is for, so people can leave you a message and you can call them back!

I've used my mobile in a jam to ring school to say that I'm probably going to be late.

I've used my hands free in a jam and when moving to say the same thing.

In car technology is dangerous. There has been an increase in incidents due to a lack of care and attention.My car has a big touch screen. I think that's distracting as you sometimes take your eye off the road.

Ironically - a major cause of police crashes appears to be distraction by in car technology when not on pursuits

www.kare11.com/news/article/942432/391/Study-Minn-police-squad-car-computers-can-be-crash-hazard

I still see idiots using their mobile at high speeds, on roundabouts etc everyday.

"Do you think making a phone call in stationary traffic is dangerous "

It has the potential to be, yes. See for example the case of Petre Beiu who hit and all-but killed Mary Bowers when he failed to see her as he moved off. He had been using a mobile whilst stationary www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3626607.ece

Traffic around you changes even whilst you are still. You might not be moving but pedestrians and other vulnerable road users still will be and they have a right to be on the road.

As to the issue of whether to report it to the police or a HT, although mentioned in the OP the discussion had moved on and I was specifically answering your more general point. As I made clear in my first post on this thread, I wouldn't report it to a HT because they can't actually do anything. I would only report it to the police if I felt I had sufficient evidence. Given that the police will sometimes not accept even helmet-cam evidence that is unlikely. I have in the past stopped in front of drivers using their phones whilst at red traffic lights and refused to move until they've put the phone down. Realistically the police cannot stop everything but public pressure and disapproval can be very powerful.

Once more, with feeling. It's a ton of metal. It really isn't too much to ask that you don't use your phone whilst you are in charge of it.

In car technology is dangerous.

Absolutely. The only technology I have in my car is a radio.

I think the police should clamp down more on mobile use whilst driving, though.

It has the potential to be, yes

Yes, I know that story. I bet there are loads of other stories when someone has been distracted in their cars by children, SAT Navs etc and have caused accidents.

Anything in a car that distracts you has the potential to be dangerous.

Once more, with feeling. It's a ton of metal. It really isn't too much to ask that you don't use your phone whilst you are in charge of it

Would you ignore your kids screaming in stationary traffic?

Orlando as I told you up thread, there are specific studies, which you are welcome to go and find, that explain the difference in distraction levels between phone calls and distractions actually in the car.

The fact that other things might also distract you does not justify mobile phone use. If anything, the reverse. If there's that much going on in your car, why add another problem? Especially one that is so recently invented.

Sat navs can and do cause problems. It's why, again, one should be careful using them and it's why people have been prosecuted for using them in cars, when it has been shown that they were not driving with due care and attention. As for screaming kids, that's why children are, or should be, taught not to distract the driver. It's why my mum used to pull over and refuse to drive if my brother and I misbehaved whilst she was driving.

Whichever way you cut it, there is no justification for using a handheld mobile in traffic, stationary or otherwise. Quite apart from anything else, it contributes to a culture that says "it's OK to multitask whilst driving" instead of one which says "driving has the potential to be dangerous, at whatever speed, and therefore I should take care whilst doing it". You can keep asking "why shouldn't I use my mobile, I'm not even moving" but the question that will keep coming back is "why the bloody hell should you?"

Orlando - some in-car distractions are unavoidable - a parent probably can't avoid having their children in the car, for example. But using your phone in the car is avoidable. Unless you are reporting an emergency, and cannot safely pull over and stop, no-one needs to use their phone in the car.

And all the sat-navs I have seen, state when you switch them on, that you should not operate them whilst driving - so if you need to reset your destination mid-journey, you should pull over and park to do so.

gabilan

I am more than aware of those studies - in fact, that's why I have an issue with hands free because they are equally distracting as the person on the other end can't see the caller.

But I personally do not have an issue with someone using a phone to make a quick call in a jam to say they will be late. There are far far more dangerous things that people do - such as using a Sat Nav at speed, changing the radio station at speed, eating at speed and hands free at speed.

I would have far more worries if I saw someone doing that compared to a quick call in a jam.

So no one on here has ever eaten whilst driving, never grabbed a bottle of water when driving etc etc?

Glad you're all perfect.

"I would have far more worries if I saw someone doing that compared to a quick call in a jam."

So would I, but that doesn't make any of them right. I can disapprove of one thing, whilst disapproving of other things even more.

I'm not sure why you're trying to justify your own lawbreaking Orlando but I've said my piece. Life is too short, there are more productive uses of my time.

FYI - I don't use my hands free when driving. I use it when in a jam but not when driving because I think hands free is dangerous.

I've debated hands free before and I think it's dangerous - because I've read all the studies you told me to Google a long time ago.

So no one on here has ever eaten whilst driving, never grabbed a bottle of water when driving etc etc?

There is a big difference between doing those things occasionally and trying to claim that they are all absolutely fine to do.

Of course it's dangerous and illegal. No one appears to be disputing that. However, enforcing this law is the job of the police, not the head teacher nor the school parent. Teachers should not be held to standards different from the rest of society and I doubt that anyone would ring someone else's place of work about their alleged use of a mobile whilst driving unless that person's job was to drive. And all this guff about teachers and professional standards is rubbish - perhaps we can talk about professional behaviour when teachers are paid as much respect as doctors and accountants and when their salary starts to look more like that of a 'professional'. Similarly, talk of driving children to events is a red herring. No one is suggesting that the teacher had children in the car and when a teacher drives children in a work capacity it is generally out of the goodness of his or her heart. Moaning and griping around this particular red herring will just lead to teachers being less willing to drive kids around for ungrateful parents and no one can make them either!

As tell my DC, "two wrongs don't make a right". Just because there are other dangerous distractions also whilst driving does not mean using a phone is acceptable. Fwiw, I don't actually eat or drink whilst driving either, nor use a sat nav and the DC have been brought up not to scream or shout in the car.

I drive several hundred miles each week, but have only rarely needed to make a call to say I'm going to be late. On those occasions, I do pull over out of the traffic to make the call or send a text.

I work on the basis that I can't call, text, eat, drink, use the sat nav, change radio stations etc etc etc when I'm on the bike, so why would I do it when I'm in the car?

As others have said, when you are driving, you are in charge of 1 + tonnes of potentially lethal equipment and you have to treat the use of that with responsibility. The police apparently now treat fatal road collisions as murder investigations btw.