What goes through people's heads on their phones driving

[backstreetboysareback]

I'm livid. Kids in car on long drive. Refuelling at a service station and a man in a van with two teenagers sat next to him is driving on the road that slips back on to the motorway having a conversation with his phone held at his ear driving all over the place. That's how he's driving onto the motorway.
I'm livid
I've seen so much of it today
Why???

I see so many people either texting and driving or on the phone. Similar to OPs story, I was on a coach on the motorway so had a pretty good view, saw a man, who actually owns a lot of businesses in the city where I live, very well known through social media, joining the motorway whilst scrolling through facebook, unbelievable! Traffic was running fairly smoothly so was at least 50mph. Wish I'd had a chance to catch that on camera.

This hits a very sore point with me. My best friends, mother who was 62 at the time, was hit by a brain dead driver a few years ago, whilst crossing on a zebra crossing. A car had screeched to a halt and instinctively, she turned in shock and put her hands out. The car knocked her to the ground. She broke one of her wrists, dislocated her shoulder and fractured a collarbone. CCTV did actually catch him on the phone just before approaching the crossing, he was clearly distracted at that moment.

When-ever I see drivers on mobiles whilst driving, I always think of that moment and it boils my blood.

We were driving on the M1 last Sunday evening and a Polish lorry driver was on his phone, it made me feel sick - I gave him immense dirty looks and he seemed to put the phone down. I don't normally get worked up about people on phones etc but the fact he is charge of an HGV on his phone was appalling.

not a great deal. i enjoy [from the passenger seat, obvs] taking photos of anyone i see doing it & tweeting to the local police force.

I view seeing a mobile in someone's hand while driving the same way I'd view seeing a bottle of vodka in someone's hand while driving. I wish the most horrific things on people that do either of those things. Hopefully karma gets them back.

There’s a woman in my town who I see driving about a lot and 9 times out of 10 I can clearly see that she’s texting or using her phone.

She’s a driving instructor

(Not texting while she’s with a learner I should point out but when she’s alone).

Two reasons, most drivers over-estimate their abilities, and think therefore the rules don't apply to them. Secondly, they stand little chance of getting caught as the number of traffic police has been cut by a 1/3. When was the last time you saw them on 'patrol', as opposed to reacting to something with their lights and sirens going?

I think they DON’T think. Or they reason ‘it’s just a few seconds’ so don’t see it as a big deal. And I bet if you do it once and all is fine, so you do it again, and again, confident that they’re an expert driver who can manage both.
It’s terrible!
So many accidents have happened from just those few seconds.
A few months ago on the motorway my mother was driving me and my sister to a wedding when a lorry in front of us was driving strangely, it was in the left hand lane but kept occasionally drifting into the middle lane – only ever a few inches before it straightened up again but it was very concerning. It kept doing it and I told my mother to keep a wide berth which she did, but eventually got spooked so decided to overtake.
As we went past, we could see him looking at his phone!! Obviously the veering was when his eyes were down on the screen. So scary!! I took a note of his number plate and we reported him but never heard anything, so no idea what happened (if anything).
Just so terrifying that someone in charge of an enormous vehicle could be so careless. Imagine if he’d veered further than a few inches and clipped a car in the middle lane…doesn’t bear thinking about.

Secondly, they stand little chance of getting caught as the number of traffic police has been cut by a 1/3. When was the last time you saw them on 'patrol', as opposed to reacting to something with their lights and sirens going

Also they have to have zero idea of decent driving themselves. There are road works at the end of my road. The traffic lights are on one side of the junction, the stop sign is the other, so people keep the mouth of the road clear for those wanting to get in or out. Last week I came back to find a police car (not on an emergency call) across the mouth of the road. I stopped, flashed him, gave him a hard stare and he reversed back and let me in. If they are that clueless they are probably on their phones themselves.