Mobile use while driving

[FarAwayHills]

I am so cross and fed up of seeing people using their phones while driving I counted 5 today on a pretty short journey. Having read the news today regarding the tragic death of a mum and her 3 children due the a lorry driver using his phone, I am insensed that people continue to do this. What the hell can be that important.

I am not a technical person but could there be some way that devices could be automatically disabled while a vehicle is being driven. It seems like the only way because people just can't help themselves and fines and penalties are clearly not working.

AIBU to think more needs to be done about this?

It's a good suggestion Portia but I know a lot of my friends also record and watch programmes so they can skip the adverts.

Purple, same here, there's no way I'm risking my safety to get the phone from the boot! I don't think Magpie has thought this through from a safety point of view.

They walked along the hard shoulder to the SOS phone boxes to call for help

Oh yes, I really want to do that on my own at night! I'm sorry, but just because it was done years ago doesn't mean we should still be doing it now when there is a much better alternative!

I have thought it through and I stand by what I think . Mobiles in cars should be banned / locked away I would possibly settle for it locked in glove apartment if the fines and bans were in place were high enough .

I've broken down on motorways and while frightening I had to get out and use the SoS boxes ( long time ago pre mobile )
We're just so used to being attached to our phones 24/7 that we don't want to separate from them

Yes mobiles make it easier . But I think it's just a load of excuses for people wanting to be permanently attached to their phones

I have already said I don't use my phone in the car. I don't see why it is not allowed in my bag in the footwell of the passenger seat. The first time I broke down it was 11pm at night. I don't accept that because some arseholes use their phones while driving I should have to keep mine in the boot possibly meaning either a dangerous time on the hard shoulder finding it or a walk in the pitch dark to find an SOS phone.

We're just so used to being attached to our phones 24/7 that we don't want to separate from them

No-it is that they are bloody useful in a genuine emergency. I am not talking about checking my Facebook.

Agreed Purple. There's no way I'm risking my safety.

Yes Pink I do too but I always watch the news and and online newspapers. The internet is far reaching but I don't know how a campaign could be implemented.
I'm a member of the RNLI and they only get attention when something awful happens.

portia loads of my Facebook friends have been sharing the ITV news story about the lorry driver. Social media campaigns seem bigger now than tv ads.

I have thought it through and I stand by what I think

You clearly haven't.

How would this new law be enforced?

Random roadside checks while plod stop every car and search for an incorrectly stored mobile phone? Have you any idea how many man hours that would take.

There aren't enough resources to enforce the existing law and catch people actually doing something wrong in usingthe phone when driving, let alone the one you propose.

Also the Police can't actually search cars at random they have to have reasonable grounds to suspect they'll find stolen or prohibited articles.

So even more of a reason why it would be both unenforceable and draconian.

It is far safer to get behind the barrier as soon as possible. Many people are killed every year on the hard shoulder of motorways.

We don't need to make phones unusable in cars. We didn't need to make cars not work unless seatbelts were worn or a breathalyser to ensure someone over limit couldn't drive. They key is knowing that you will get caught- so more frequent spot checks and social acceptance.

Unfortunately walking along the hard shoulder is a lot more dangerous than it used to be, roads are busier , and, well, full of drivers using their phones. Lorries regularly veer onto the HS. It's better to get behind barrier and use your mobile.

The person who witnessed it's word against the person who (likely) denies they did it? You can obviously see why the police wouldn't follow it up/ CPS prosecute.

No I can't. If there were an altercation between two people, yes, because both might have motive to misrepresent.

If the offender was known to the the witness was thought to have some motive to lie, that might be a grey area.

A complete stranger witnessing a crime is evidence. If I walk up to someone in the street and stab them, and the only evidence is that a complete stranger saw me do it, of course that evidence is enough to charge, try and convict. The only reason for this not to also be true of mobile phone use is that the authorities can't be arsed for a relatively insignificant crime.

(Not involved in criminal justice in any way, happy to be corrected by someone who is.)

Also I think it would be better if Bluetooth kits were banned/disabled. At the moment new cars are basically fitted with a feature that encourages bad habits.

One person's word against another is only a draw if both have a reason to lie.

Maybe I haven't thought it through properly but I will stand by the higher fines, bans and making it difficult to get back in a car afterwards

but it's pretty obvious the present law isn't worth shit 6 points and a slap on the wrist isn't a deterrent to the thousands of people that continue to drive and use there mobiles everyday illegally

I'm not saying that people should have 10 years in jail / but the present laws aren't enough

But the present law isn't sufficent ( imo) and there needs to be a massive social adjustment to get people in the mindset that using a mobile phone while driving is against the law and the punishement for doing so and getting caught is more than a slap on the wrist and a few points on your licence and being able to drive again straight afterwards

Plod Knicks on someone's door.

"We've had reports made by AN Other that your car was being driven by someone who was using a phone."

The responses would include:

"It wasn't me driving"
"They were mistaken"
"My passenger was using the phone, not me"
"They've written the number down incorrectly"

What chances would there be of securing a conviction in lieu of any other evidence?

Also I think it would be better if Bluetooth kits were banned/disabled. At the moment new cars are basically fitted with a feature that encourages bad habits.

Before my current phone, I had a Windows phone, where there is a built in "driving mode" which is triggered when a specified BT pairing (usually the car) is made. When the phone is put into "Driving Mode", all calls are diverted to voicemail, and callers/texters get an autogenerated SMS saying "I'll get back to you when not driving" (they are customisable).

I was a bit when I switched to Android to discover that every single" "Driving Mode" app was extolling the virtues of how easy* they made it to make calls/send texts (and emails !!!!) while driving.

Not at all what I wanted.

Eventually I found an App "DriveMode" which does divert when paired with the car. It's not the default setting. But it can be done.

But Theo you must know that police don't follow up reports of driving offences after the event they themselves haven't witnessed. I can't tell if you're saying that's what you think should happen or whether you think it actually does?

My BIL was once shopped for undertaking in his hgv. Crept past a middle lane hogger going slowly, driver and passenger reported, 2 witnesses I guess. The police followed that up. (Possibly irrelevant!)

I think that there was a study recently that concluded that listening to music or making a hands free ( Bluetooth) phone call were equally distracting. Very hard to police. The most distracting/ dangerous were texting or using a non hands free phone while driving. Maybe MNers could have a campaign of collecting car numbers and naming and shaming in the latter case? There's probably a Facebook campaign already up and running

If car radios were a new device they might well be forbidden but they are not and they cannot be. It might be technically possible to require them to be fitted with a device so that the controls would not work with the engine on so that you would have to choose the channel and the volume before you started the car, but I doubt if the public would wear it.

As for all this talk of ten years and twenty years and life: that sort of sentence can only be given on the verdict of a jury. Now a long time ago it was a capital offence to steal goods worth more than two shillings from a shop - you youngsters may not even know that that is ten pence. And juries regularly brought in verdicts of guilty of stealing goods worth one half-penny less than that.

In fact, the reason the maximum for drink-driving was reduced in 1977 was to get it out of the hands of juries who - as the world then was - often acquitted in the teeth of the evidence.

Now a long time ago it was a capital offence to steal goods worth more than two shillings from a shop - you youngsters may not even know that that is ten pence. And juries regularly brought in verdicts of guilty of stealing goods worth one half-penny less than that.

Er, actually juries used to go out of their way not to hang people. When juries were responsible for findings of fact, they would frequently value the good as just under the hangmans price. And where people were killed in fights they would often find the dead man started it.

Generally juries - despite gobshites like the Daily Mail - were increasingly reluctant to vote a death penalty. One of the driving forces towards abolition.

And two shillings was actually 24 pennies.

Er, actually juries used to go out of their way not to hang people. When juries were responsible for findings of fact, they would frequently value the good as just under the hangmans price. And where people were killed in fights they would often find the dead man started it.

That's the point I was making! They found valuable goods to be worth less than two shillings.

And two shillings was actually 24 pennies.

I know, LurkingHusband but that was old pence. Ten new pence.

But Theo you must know that police don't follow up reports of driving offences after the event they themselves haven't witnessed. I can't tell if you're saying that's what you think should happen or whether you think it actually does?

I don't know that, and don't particularly care whether they do or not. I don't think it's really relevant whether they do or not, the question was whether they could prosecute if they wanted to.

PinkSparklyPussyCat From quite a few posts ago!

The problem is that most of us only have so much mental processing capacity and when driving that should be on the job in hand anything else that's likely to distract that is not a good thing, and supportive of the just driving the car idea.

However some are more distracting than others., I find radio music to be very not distracting whereas speech and talk on the radio a bit more, having a passenger whose talking a lot very distracting and MIL in the back suicidal;! well almost;!

But research has indicated that talking on the phone is very distracting even if it's hands free holding it up to your ear of course not a good idea but it isnt that act that causes the problem, its taking your mind off what you should be doing and that's driving the car.

Until you stop using the phone then this problem is not going to go away.

However there may well be conditions where you need to use the phone and having it outside in the boot isnt a lot of help. I once was overtaken by someone swerving from side to side obviously drunk in change and phoned 999 and sure enough a few miles later on a lot of blue lights and they did stop the car but that's been once in many years.Course if you do breakdown getting out of the car may not be the best idea several instances of that.

What it needs to be done is to make the penalties very serious and heavy and make the using act socially unacceptable like drink driving has become.

Or possibly interlock it with the car engine running no phone use. Not ideal but i don't think theres a one size fits all answer to this one!