So, would you eat an apple whilst driving?

[Tinker]

Here

Or do you think it is outrageously dangerous and highly irresponsible?

yoikes, posted my flippant remark before Stitch put that slightly crass and very unneeded comment to the board - it really isn't the same comparision is it?

jesus, i keep forgetting that this is the country that has all those people suing for emotional disteress compensation. its not my fault types.!
oh, and i have an aunt who had her arm cut off because she was sitting in a car with her elbow resting on the open window, which some idiot drove to close to. so i do know what i am talking about.
my son who is seven got very upset at the school disco, and walked out, all the way home. a twenty minute walk, he had to cross a very busy road, which is supposed to be a forty, but people usually do at least fifty on it. i was so upset i was shaking and in tears when i saw him at home. but you know what disgusted me most. the school were concerned that i was going to sue them. the head teacher told me it was not his responsiblity, the pta thought it was his fault, he is seven! a simple, sorry it happened and we will make sure we dot allow kids to wander off the premises again would have sufficed. but no, everyone was soo worried about being sued.
and my seven year old, he told me himself that a car nearly crashed into him. i still shake when i think about it, but had it happened, i certainly wouldnt go about blaming the driver of that vehicle, and forcing him to endure jail for the idiocy of a seven year old.
we have to learn to take responsibility for our acitons. that is waht being an adult is about.

oh, and try sneezing. it is a medical impossibility to sneeze with your eyes open. that would take about 1.96 seconds i should think. should you get three years in jail for sneezing whilst driving on the motorway?

Not sure what sneezing has to do with it. That is very different from a voluntary action.

Insulting people is not part of mumsnet policy and was uncalled for.

but as someone who failed her driving test five times, i do think that as a rule people are bad, careless drivers. i used to get very upset because i was a perfectly good driver with my instructor, or sister, but as soon as id get to the test, id get nervous and do something for which i would fail. but then the very next day, as a passenger, i would routinely see people doing the thing that i had failed my test on, or worse. its as if once you have passed your driving test, you are allowed to do what you want.
i dont think the solution to this is jail, or fines. but simply something like a limited time test pass . for example, making peopole give the driving test every five years or so, just to prove that they are still capable of being behind a potentially lethal machine.

you are right hercules, i did not mean to be personal. just got a bit carried away. this is blame everyone but yourself attitude drives me completely mad

so if i offended anyone, im sorry for that, but i believe i have a very valid viewpoint, and have the right to share it
what does sneexing have to do with it? well, it would have been the same as what happened in the mints situation.

But stitch, you wouldn't get jail for sneezing, it's recognised as a genuine accident.

And actually, if I run a seven year old boy over when I'm doing 50 where the speed limit is 40, then yes, it's my fault. In fact, unless a pedestrian actually jumps out, it's my fault if I run them over. If I see children on the road, I automatically slow down, precisely because as an adult, i expect to take the consequences of my actions, and I don't expect children to understand the consequences of theirs.

This is nothing to do with suing people. Hundreds of people get injured or killed on our roads every year, and hardly anyone gets sent to jail for it. Even when drivers are speeding or driving obviously dangerously.

Are you arguing that drivers should be allowed to drive as carelessly as they want, and everyone should just accept the casualties as "that's life"? That doesn't sound like drivers taking responsibility for their actions to me.

Stitch, I can see what you are saying but as you said yourself: we have to learn to take responsibility for our actions. that is what being an adult is about.

Quite right. That is what the lady holding an apple whilst turning a corner did - lets hope she learnt something too.

Oh, she was turning a corner. Well I don't think you can turn a corner without using 2 hands, and she was wrong.

But, I don't think that I am putting anyone at risk by driving carefully on a straightish road, at a fairly constant speed, with one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand holding an apple, or just resting in my lap (which I realised today is what I tend to do).

I tend to eat before I leave the house.
But this is a lesson on being very careful as I am aware my hand wanders on the radio occasionally.
Unfortunatley how careful you maybe as a driver there vert may well be other less careful drivers out there.Whos hands continuosly wander.

ooh i never let a smoker pull out, mean eh?

Well, I never thought I'd see the day I'd agree with victoriapeckham

When this woman was stopped she was given a £30 fixed fine - no points on her licence. Had she paid up and admitted she was in the wrong that would have been the end of it. I talked to dh about this at lunchtime and we agreed that if it had been him (I don't drive) he would have been a bit peed off, probably done some muttering to friends about "why aren't the Police out catching real criminals?"...but he would have paid the fine, known deep down he was in the wrong and the matter would have been done and dusted.

The reason this snowballed and ended up costing £10,000 was because the woman in question refused to pay up, was prepared for it to go to court, talked to the press about the injustice of it all: basically was not grown up enough to say "OK, I'm sorry. I was wrong." And the Police didn't pursue it to the cost of £10,000 - they don't decide which cases are prosecuted, the CPS does.

I completely agree, £10,000 would be far better spent elsewhere - but there was no alternative once this woman refused to pay up. If people start choosing for themselves whether they have broken the law and deserve punishment then we have anarchy.

The only good thing about the whole episode is that maybe people will think twice now before doing other things when they should be concentrating on driving (eating apples while turning a corner, smoking cigarettes, inserting tampons...ye gods...and I remember a woman in the States who was breast-feeding while driving)

i am often frightened of women especially who drive with both hands on the steering wheel.

theres a middle ground i think. i do an awful lot of motorway driving - 5th gear for 80 miles going straight - i eat and drink and smoke and change the radio and even use my spare hand to put the odd finger up to deserving drivers.

in the town though, there is so much to negotiate, you need one hand on the gears.

totally agree custardo - i said earlier about eating and drinking and yes smoking, but only on motorway/dual carriageways - town driving - i dont have a spare hand - one hand on the wheel - other on gear stick!

there was a case near me the other day of someone stealing an apple
12p
it was a repeat offence and htats why they took action

I don't understand why the taxpayer has to pay her costs. Why can't she pay?

janH and aloha - in answer to both your questions ... NO. I don't even have the radio on because I find it distracting.

Stitch - If you are driving a car, you are in control of something that has the potential to maim or kill. Therefore you should remain in full control. Surely you've heard the old cliche "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time" (or something along those lines). If you cause an accident because you are doing something that means that you are not in full control of the vehicle - then you are responsible, so you should pay. In this country, that means abiding by the penal system, so YES prison would be a way of paying.

Your comment "... many many horrible things happen in this world, we cant control all of them." Proves my point exactly - we can control whether or not we do something that means we would not be in control of the vehicle - even for a split second. You make that decision, you are responsible for the consequences. Sneezing is a natural bodily function - we cannot make a conscious decision to sneeze.

You also said that "...we have to learn to take responsibility for our actions. that is what being an adult is about." So why is it that the only people who complain about the police & courts, etc carrying out the law in relation to seemingly minor offenses - are the very people who regularly commit such offenses, instead of admitting that they are wrong and taking whatever is dished out to them.

Stitch what I do advocate is that people do not make excuses for carelessness. As stated throughout this thread - if you are in charge of a car, you are responsible for ensuring that you maintain control of that vehicle.

In addition, thank goodness that your son wasn't hurt in the school disco fiasco - but, I do not believe for one minute that if he had been hurt by a car, that you wouldn't lay any blame on the car driver.

As for the comment "...bad things happen in life. deal with it like an adult. not a whinny spoilt little brat...." I'm hardly little, definately not whinny and as for spoilt - chance would be a fine thing. So to stoop to a level that we appear to have dropped to - I'm not the one who spat the dummy and resorted to personal insults.

At the end of the day, we all do things we know we shouldnt, or feel dont matter. No-one can criticise a persons "personal" choice. Just because i drink from a bottle, eat a chocolate bar, or smoke a ciggarette whilst driving does not necessarily mean i am not in control of my vehicle and my attention isnt on the road. i know not to do these things whilst town driving but on long straight boring motorways - i dont see a problem

But it's not really a "personal" choice if it can affect someone else is it?

but it is...... are there any stats to say how many accidents per year are as a result of drinking/eating/smoking at the wheel???? a lot more accidents are as a result of tiredness more than anything i think you will find. it is my personal choice to do what i do

I think the whole point that should be picked up on here is the word 'choice'!

Isn't a choice a conscious decision to do something.

And whatever anyone says, if you are doing something other than giving 100% to your driving - you are not, you cannot be in control of the vehicle.

joash - do you talk to passengers? Seriously, just curious since you don't have the radio on.