People are STILL using their phones whilst driving and at traffic lights!

[notmoredirtywashing]

I’m sick and tired of nearly having car crashes on my busy commute because some idiot is on their phone.

I had a near miss on Friday when the lights changed and the car in front tried to pull away whilst still on their phone and nearly crashed into me. Then yesterday, I was on a two lane road with traffic lights every 250 yards or so, and every time I stopped at a red the car next to me were looking at their phone.

If I did it ( obviously I wouldn’t) you can bet I’d get caught!

Speed cameras are standard, so why not catching people on their phones? Obviously the law doesn’t apply to them

AMIBU?

I was also wondering that as well 🤔

Stupid selfish people. Another stupid obsession with the phone. Where they posting what they were doing on Facebook by any chance
Look at me I'm in the car 🚗
Let's just hope when they crash they wrap themselves round a tree and not anybody else.

You can still press a button to answer a call etc.

Here it seems that every tractor driver is on their phone. Terrifies me.

The massive screen in my car is more distracting than my phone has ever been tbh! There’s 3 screens of icons to wheel through to find what you want to amend, and i’m talking about the heating, or the radio …. Normal driver things!

I don’t just my phone while I’m driving but I can guarantee that most modern cars are just as distracting. They’re impossible to do anything without looking at the screen… give me a knob or a button to turn the heating on, any day!

I have not driven in many years (my last car had a cassette player in it). If I had to drive a modern one, I don't think I would be able to. Too many screens and buttons.

So just because something is not banned, it's OK, no matter how dangerous ?

My 2018 phone could be set to listen for "OK Google", if I wanted.

I did not say it is OK.
If you ban hands free talking, then you would have to ban people speaking to passengers in their own car.
And also ban people with amateur radio licenses, and also make it illegal for the emergency services to to use radio/handsfree too.

I live right by some traffic lights. If I am in the bedroom and looking out I can almost guarantee that most of the drivers stopped at the lights are looking at their phones. The women seem worse than the men.

I also notice that when I am stopped at lights and look up into my rear view mirror that often the person behind me is looking down at a phone. Quite often I pull away when the lights change and the person following me does not even notice traffic has moved.

I did once get out of my car and speak to a woman in the car behind me, I had noticed that every time we had to stop or slow down she was almost in the back of me. I wasnt loud or threatening but I did tell her she was going to be lucky to get home the way she was driving and she just sat there with the phone in her hand and said 'So what'.

Not sure why you say STILL? If anything, surely it's far worse than when the law was first introduced, because there's a lot more people now, so roads are probably much busier, plus in 2003, people didn't use their phones as much. Well, maybe to call, but they weren't on social media on them all the time.

There are new cameras now, that apparently spot mobile use as well as speeding, if you're interested.

Can't be that much of an issue then.... I'm always getting a mouthful from someone!

Mixed bag this one. Suggesting people have their cars crushed is moronic in terms of proportionality and use of finite world resources. I agree with current laws on mobile phone use, though I’m certainly not morally outraged if someone uses them at the lights when they are red. As for those who want to send in their own gotcha videos to the police, I think there’s a fine line to tread. My kid is way more distracting in the car than a phone, do the car crushing surveillance nuts who are out in this thread think it would also be great if laws were toughened so we could get points for sent in clips of any instance we weren’t concentrating on the road like a clip of you facing your kid for a split second whilst driving (or even at the red lights)? You can argue that the kid interaction is more urgent than the phone, and that it may be, but your kid is hardly in mortal danger 99% of the time given they’re literally strapped in. Anyway, that’s my view and I still think ‘bell end, hope you get pulled by the police’ if I see someone driving whilst on a call.

Could the poster who said that her husband routinely reports people who get six points please confirm how you get to know about that please?

My local force publishes the outcome. if you know the make, model, date and time you can check the results. They don’t update you personally, it’s a monthly spreadsheet.

Yep sick of it too and vaping and even with hands free having animated conversations and not looking at road. Also people walking whilst on phone and not looking where they are going . 🙄

Im often a passenger so it easier to spot someone on their phone and 100% it is NOT just at traffic lights, its all the time!! Our DS constantly comments at how bad it is and im hoping he carries that through once hes passed his test.
As a pedestrian the other day a tractor and plough went past us and the lad was on his phone, thats a big hunk if metal to lack focus/control with!

I see this a lot and it’s so unnecessary. I have wondered if it’s not the law in other countries and that’s why it’s on the increase, perhaps we need some commercials on TV and SM

I've reported bad driving as a pedestrian. After a few days I had a reply from Hampshire saying it was sufficient to either caution, fine or court. I was pleasantly surprised as I didn't think I'd hear anything once uploaded.

They need to seriously up the sanction for this offence. Automatic driving ban if found guilty. You cause an accident and you being on your phone contributes to it, a dangerous driving charge, possible prison (regardless of whether you drive into a person or a inanimate object, and regardless of whether someone is killed or injured).

We pussy foot around this kind of thing far too much.

You see loads of parents doing outside school at puck up (as they mount the pavements where children are walking).

I out it down to picking up children while they are still "working from home".

I got taxi's in Thailand last year and they watch films on their phones whilst driving! One of the drivers was watching Thailand's got talent.
Really scary, especially with Bangkok traffic!

It's as bad as drink driving in my opinion

You can on my husbands car!

The right setup can use "Hey Google" and do it by voice. (since at least 2020).