So, would you eat an apple whilst driving?

[Tinker]

Here

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

The man in front of me in the queue at the traffic lights yesterday was shaving! We were moving slowly but hadn't actually stopped & he was looking at his chin in his rear view mirror! I couldn't believe it.

(Still seeing HGV drivers with mobiles clapsed to their ears. What is the point of a law that is not enforced? )

on the way home from collecting DS from school today

there was a man behind me on the phone with left hand and smoking with right hand

so therefore to put cig in mouth no hands

I pulled over and he sped past

It was a windy road with 40 speed limit.

DS wanted to phone the police but I had to tell him there wasnt any point

do you knwo rt though ,( whats the rt for btw?) there IS a point! if he has points on his licence or is driving whilst disqual the poice will get him

BTW A car drove into the back of me last may and injured my back and neck

He was looking at a broken down car in his rear mirror that he had just driven past.

He told me this when we stopped to exchange details etc.

I was stationary in a queue at roundabout.

The police were not interested

How do you know they weren't interested?

Oh sorry, I thought you meant about the guy with the cig and the phone. I don't read your next post. Sorry.

No actually meant they were not interested in the crash

We had to report to policestation

and were told they wouldnt need to see details of the other guy

That realy surprises me RT. Surely he should have got a ticket?

No it was too common for people to rear end

too much paper work I think

Even though we told them he admitted not looking and seeing the queue and me

Someone reversed into us and had 2 huge dogs in the back so couldnt see. She tried to blame DH but 2 police men saw what happened and were witnesses. However, although we won the insurance case nothing happened to her.

If you were in the US, the police would have come to the scene (you wouldn't have had to go to the police station), and the at-fault driver would have been given a ticket.

we rang them and they said that we should exchange details etc and report to the station {the local one to home} not crash

This morning I was out driving with DD in a slow moving urban area and I tried to imitate the action of holding and apple whilst holding the steering wheel. It's not really possible. An apple is a wide object which renders your hand completely useless and out of control of your vehicle - either to turn the car safely round a corner or to change gear. Holding a cigarette between two fingers in my opinion is probably a much safer action whilst driving a car. But how horrified do I get when people light their cigarette with a zippo lighter

I do eat in my car - mostly chocolate. I open it before I set off and put it on the passenger seat where I can pick pieces out of the wrapper. I think the most important thing is not having your hands tied up by anything so you can control the steering wheel at a seconds notice and also never doing something unnecessary that makes you take your eyes off the road ahead.

I get so mad at the large amount of people I see flaunting the no mobile phone law. And why is it always people in large vehicles like lorries, vans and 4X4s. I once saw someone reversing their BMW X5 around a corner whilst talking on their phone I wish there was some way other citizens could police this law, perhaps by taking a photo of the offender (only after pulling over of course )and passing it to the police.

I think that sometimes the police need to make a big stand against a new law and go out to prosecute lots of people so it is in people's minds that you most likely won't get away with it.

my mother smokes while driving, so many times I have seen her nearly swerve over when she lights (with a light as her skoda has no lighter in it)
thankfully now she rolls her cigs before starting her journey
I have told her time and time again and refuse to travel with her.
I sometimes eat a wine gum, have never used my phone ever while driving, I cannot multi task and really believe that all that keeps me and kids safe on the road is my driving and vigilance.
But would I expect the CPs to take someone to court over it?
Not really no...

But what's the point of a law if it's not enforced?

"thankfully now she rolls her cigs before starting her journey" OMG - my dh admitted that he used to do this when he was a young smoker. It's scary to think about the consequences and scary to realise what some people think is acceptable to do at the wheel of the car.

Anyway, whilst I disagree that you can hold an apple and drive a car safely, I think the woman in question should have been given a firm warning first.

esp taking into account beatie that without her glasses she is technically blind
she also thinks that 50mph is a "good" speed, whether on M1 or school road
I hate her at times, am urging her to buy a lighter car or preferably not one at all...
I have this awful premonition that she will die in car accident, I've had it for years, ghoulish but I just hope desperately that she never causes anyone else to be injured or worse

My dad is a dangerous driver too; he speeds on the motorway and dual carriageways. He's one of those idiots who will drive right up to your bumper until you move out of the way, not allowing for any kind of unpredicatble behaviour from the cars in front.

He claims not to speed on urban roads though so thinks he's fine.

I've been driving for 31 years and have seen the roads get busier and busier over the decades with the accompanying rise of driver frustration. Also I have lived in the crowded SE corner for the past 20 years. Two people (one a female driver aged 46 and and one an 80 year old male pedestrian) were killed in separate accidents a cuople of days apart on the seafront road of my town two weeks ago. The speed limit is 30 and there are 2 speed cams within a few hundred yards of each other there so no-one speeds but this road is so busy that these accidents happen all the time. Lack of concentration by drivers is the main cause - I see drivers eating, smoking, map reading and my personal favourite: having the newspaper propped up on the windscreen and reading it as driving along When I drive I have the radio on and can listen to dd chatting or hold a conversation with my dh easily. But my mind is on the road, behind me, in front of me, to the side of me, watching for cars shooting out of side roads, overtaking illegally etc etc. I never let up on my concentration. Dh teases me BUT I have no points on my licence, I have never had a speeding or any other driving fine, never had a crash and enjoy a very low rate of insurance. Dh on the other hand has points on his licence (speeding), has had several crashes (none of them his fault). My point is and I do have a point to make, is that I concentrate so hard because I don't know what other drivers, pedestrians, dogs (one ran out the other day) are going to do. So, for me, it isn't about whether you think you're safe eating and drinking and smoking while driving its about the fact that you might have to react to what someone else does. End of lecture.

Cam-the newspaper thing reminded me of something I saw in Sicily, bloke on Moped (obviously no helmet/shoes) reading a book whilst in the middle lane of the m/way. He was giving his DD (aged about 6, only had a bikini on) a backie. Even our laid back Sicilian friends found this a little reckless!