Worse than talking and driving is driving and texting,this is getting worse.
Ive actually just come down a major 'a' road in my truck and a van came flying up to the junction it was a new type reno with the low window sill i could clearly see him pushing his silly little buttons and decided if he pulled out in front of me i was not going to risk killing myself by trying to get round him, i must add i had a loaded car on the back and you cant do donuts with the centre of gravity so high.
He kept stopped and lived another day and so did i
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I'm sure they'll be a mobile phone style 'Gatso' along in the near future! The worst offenders on my daily route seem to be truck drivers.
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WHY would you drive and text? How can flirting with Waynetta be so important? Are people really that stupid?
Yes, they are aren't they?
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I have a hands-free set up in my car, however I do find that talking on the phone whilst driving is incredibly distracting - vastly more so than speed cameras, which some people claim are distracting. The brain seems to 'divert' from driving to thinking about the discussion on the phone. For that reason I only use the phone if its something really urgent. Ideally I think drivers should be banned from using any sort of phone when driving. I suspect that this will never happen because companies need to keep in touch with their staff and this economic consideration will override any safety argument.
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I can't see how a hands-free phone can be more distracting that talking to a passenger in the car.
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Smoking has to be just as bad.
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As a smoker I'd have to agree. The only time I smoke in the car is when I am stopped! Or, maybe in a traffic jam....
If anyone's seen 'The Big Lebowski' it demonstrates admirably the perils of smoking (whatever may be in the roll-up....) in a car.
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Smoking has to be just as bad.
For the driver it's undoubtedly worse. Smoking will directly kill 1 in 3 smokers, driving on the phone has to increase your chances of being in an accident, but can't imagine it's that lethal!!
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I think we're talking about accidents here, not the long-term effects. This isn't a medical website! All smokers, despite what they might say, know the effects.
As a smoker, and you're obviously not one..... or the worst thing ever, an ex-smoker (inserts smiley as is only messing not being offensive!) I can assure you lighting, smoking and disposing of a cigarette is fraught with dangers (as per the Big Leboswki reference).
Particularly if you're on the phone at the time. Joke.
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It was meant as a joke StevieD, you're a bit twitchy there. :-)
You're right tho, I'm a non-smoker, but I am involved with trying to save the lives of those unfortunate enough to have been entrapped by the tobacco companies.
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No twitching!! I too was being light-hearted.... maybe I'm fractious 'cos I need a fag...: )
I am entrapped. Philip Morris has a lot of control over me...
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Smoking has to be just as bad.
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andy :
whislt smoking while is also bad practice, it is not as dangerous as using a mobile phone while driving.
smoking can be dealt with as a "careless driving" or "driving without due care", i.e. failure to be in full control" type of offence by police. smoking can be done almost as an automated function except that it requires the driver to use a hand to hold the cigarette.
research has shown that talking on the phone requires deeper mental processes, and is dangerous when done using a hands-free phone, but even more so when using a hand-held phone.
p.s. - see my reply to xileno.
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I can't see how a hands-free phone can be more distracting that talking to a passenger in the car.
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xileno : perhaps the following will help.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1885775.stm
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=16...1
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=11...5
note that since then, furhter detailed studies have proved the point beyond any doubt.
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Dalglish
Thanks for those links. Very helpful.
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I can't see how a hands-free phone can be more distracting that talking to a passenger in the car.
You beat me to it Xileno. But most of us will be familiar with the experience of going completely blank on yr interlocutor, whether on phone or sitting beside you, when a challenging or complex road situation arises, When you are driving peacefully again you realise they are still talking and you haven't registered a word.
Can be a bit embarrassing, but surely better than the other way round. First things first.
The reason cameras are so distracting to some categories of driver is that they are about driving, not something else entirely like a conversation with a passenger. They are meant to interfere with what the driver is doing, and this does make some drivers anxious.
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I sometimes drive to the south coast and back in one day from Liverpool. I often (maybe 90% of the time) complete this journey without ever seeing a patrol car.
The other day something (or someone) important must have been happening at Liverpool cathederal, I didn't count, but I can safely say there were at least 15 police patrol cars/motorcycles within a 500 mtere radius (and probably some unmarked ones as well). Maybe Degsy was meeting the Bishop?
If you did'nt laugh, you'd cry!
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With current legislation, if there is an accident and it can be proved you were on the phone (easy with phone records) then you can be done for dangerous driving. So if someone were killed by a driver on the phone then that driver could be facing a jail sentence.
I have a professionally fitted car kit but try not to speak whilst driving if I can help it. Especially if it's a work related call because then it's not a chat but possibly a lengthy and involved conversation.
Isn't the legislation surrounding mobile phone use due to change soon? Isn't it going to be 3 points plus a £60 fine. Maybe then the police will feel it worth their while policing this law.
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Isn't it going to be 3 points plus a £60 fine. Maybe then the police will feel it worth their while policing this law.
Yes and hopefully.
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I am a heavy smoker (40 a day) and have been for 20 years. I nearly aslways smoke when I drive.
Health risks aside (which are a matter for me only) I do not honestly believe that smoking at the wheel is much of a risk. In 20 years of driving I have never had an incident.
I have used a phone while driving (obviously before the new law) and I can say that it is infinitely more distracting than smoking.
One hand is out of action, which is not the case with smoking. I can get a fag out and light it without taking my eyes of the road. Try answering a phone or dialing a number without taking your eyes off the road. Try unwrapping and eating a Mars bar.
I sometimes think that I could light and smoke a fag in my sleep.
Of course, not everyone else is as marvelously co-ordinated as me...
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My shift gave out 117 tickets for mobile phone use in the last four weeks. !!
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>>My shift gave out 117 tickets for mobile phone use in the last four weeks. !!>>
Good news, but I'd like to bet that that figure could have been raised many times over - and that would be in the first week - if the means to catch offenders were available.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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That's drivers that were observed while travelling from one job to the next. If we see one and it's safe to do so, we'll stop it.
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That's drivers that were observed while travelling from one job to the next. If we see one and it's safe to do so, we'll stop it.
That's great, well done.
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IMO using a hand-held mobile on the move is MOSTLY as dangerous as speeding: distraction and not full control of the vehicle.
However, talking with a passenger in the car = distracting. Smoking whilst driving = distracting. Re-tuning the radio/changing CD tracks (without s/wheel controls) = distracting.
Doing any of the above on a relatively-fraffic-free M-way or major road with no hazards/potential hazards in view: is there really much extra risk?
Point is, there's plenty that drivers do even legally that creates extra risk. How much control should be enforced by legislation coupled with detection measures? Why is detection/enforcement so inconsistent? (These are rhetorical questions but feel free to answer.)
BTW, illegal mobile use when driving is rife.
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And yet I believe it's not illegal to use CB radio in a car...
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>>That's drivers that were observed while travelling from one job to the next. If we see one and it's safe to do so, we'll stop it.>>
You'd only need to stand by the side of the road on the main throughfare running parallel to my road and you would probably get 117 an hour...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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if you think about it rationally........... holding a phone to your ear, on it's own is not at all distracting, no more so than picking your nose, scratching your ear, smoking a cigarette etc.
it's the concentrating on something else that is distracting.......
albeit i agree that holding the phone whilst driving a manual car would also mean that you cannot change gear properly or turn a corner...... but you could argue it's less dangerous to hold a phone in an automatic car
and no i don't advocate mobile phone usage whilst driving in the car,
but neither do i like my passengers yapping to me when: - i'm approaching a hazard, - something potentially hazardous is brewing - i'm doing an overtake or - driving at speed..........because i want to concentrate.
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Local paper said that during October all cops, traffic or not, will be targeting drivers using handheld mobiles in Humberside.
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if you think about it rationally........... holding a phone to your ear, on it's own is not at all distracting, no more so than picking your nose, scratching your ear, smoking a cigarette etc.
Surely it is very different, unless you continuously pick your nose or scratch for several minutes at a time !! Phone conversations last many minutes and all sorts of things may be happening. Also you would not normally choose to scratch or whatever in the middle of negotiating a tricky double roundabout - I have seen drivers using handheld mobiles doing just that!!
it's the concentrating on something else that is distracting.......
Agreed that is a major additional factor as has been said many times.
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This is not an offence whose enforcement requires the full powers of a Police Officer. PCSO's either on foot or pedal cycles would catch them like flies in London and, no doubt, other big Cities.
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Being old now, or of that particular generation, I just do not understand this mobile phone obsession or need to be in contact with everyone all of the time.
I have two such phones, however, one for each person in my household and we take them with us in our cars when we go out separately but they are for emergencies only and they are never left on. Similarly, when I go shopping the phone is left in the car as I don't need it when walking around the shops or up and down the high St.
Use of the mobile phone whilst driving (or rather not using the phone) is a bad law as it cannot be enforced properly but I'm appalled by the disregard and the contempt that people have for this relatively new law. I see many people now using their phones and would say that there are just as many using them as there were before the law was introduced. However, there are many dangerous and distracting things that people still do whilst in charge of a car and so don't know what the solution is.
We need more police...................but that's another thread!
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Mobile phones are mostly about the "s" word. 3, not 4 letters.
The vast majority of texts are flirting, or gossiping.... the vast majority of calls are either the same, or Clive from accounts ringing in to say he'll be late, or if there's an audience, it's self-important marketing twaddle.
Guilty? You bet I am. But I pull over to text, and indeed to read texts... particularly if the content is somewhat interesting...
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>> Health risks aside (which are a matter for me only) >>
Er, I don't think so. Won't you be expecting to get treated on the NHS?
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"Won't you be expecting to get treated on the NHS?"
And on 40 a day his contributions in tax will more than cover the cost. More than BUPA would cost anyway
--
Phil
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Indeed. And the way pensions are going, dying on the dot of 65 is the main part of my pensions strategy.
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I saw a girl pulled over by a police motorcyclist last week. She was talking on her phone, and continued to do so while he waited for her to wind the window down.
"Hang on a moment, there's a policeman wants to talk to me about something"
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I am pleased to see MLC and colleagues taking action against these idiots who think they can flout the law.
Keep up the good work MLC - I imagine this is in a marked traffic car or bike .
Just think how many you could pull in an unmarked car.
The ones who are smoking ,eating their sandwiches , drinking coffee etc should be added to the hit list.
My personal favourite for the early exit from this life was the driver texting as he turned right at a busy junction in Crete - on his motorbike - no helmet either.......
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Was that Crete or Crewe?
I work in one, and prefer the other.. see if you can guess which.
Wouldn't be surprised at the texting in either, to be honest! : )
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The ones who are smoking ,eating their sandwiches , drinking coffee etc should be added to the hit list.
Would they be allowed a furtive scratch of the private parts helicopter? I feel you may be suggesting an impractical level of perfection.
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Lud, I hope you only mean in the car....
Even the mimsiest of nanny-state apologists would, I hope, draw the line at furtive private scratching GATSOs in the home.....
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Even the mimsiest of nanny-state apologists would, I hope, draw the line at furtive private scratching GATSOs in the home.....
Ever read 1984 stevied?
The fascist potential of the nany state is not lost on some of us.
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Certainly have! In fact, I read it first in 1984, when I was a 12 year old English Lit. student.....
I always chuckle when I hear about the Americans using us for illegal stops when arms-carrying and the like, Airstrip One was about right.
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She'd have to be careful doing that in the US. There was a huge fuss when a video came out of a young girl being tazered repeatedly by a traffic cop because she wouldn't get off the phone and out the car. Was pretty nasty to watch, was being shown by Tazer as an example of 'ensuring compliance' or somesuch.
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Yes.... unless the government want to BAN smoking, then they (and others) can't preach at people, IMHO.
A selective NHS is a fascist entity.
And that's all I have to say about it.
On a motoring note, aren't ambulances slow? : )
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>>oung girl being tazered repeatedly by a traffic cop because she wouldn't get off the phone and out the car<<
I've seen that video - didn't the young girl reach into her bag for the phone after the cop told her not to? There are things you don't do and reaching into a bag when an American cop asks you not to is one of them.
Painful to watch but he was right to do it.
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No, she was already on the phone to her Mum when he got there, at least in the one I saw. The cop tazed here again when she was still twitching on the floor and too hysterical to put her hands behind her back, screaming she couldn't. Horrendous to watch, and the cop deserved to be banged up.
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Might have watched a different one then. Although I can't imagine there are two!
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True, perhaps I am mis-remembering it, I'd not want to watch again to make sure though.
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No, she was already on the phone to her Mum when he got there, at least in the one I saw. The cop tazed here again when she was still twitching on the floor and too hysterical to put her hands behind her back, screaming she couldn't. Horrendous to watch, and the cop deserved to be banged up.
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a lot of these things only have one element of a long story....... i haven't seen the video and if it is as stated then fair enough........ however......... as Adam has already pointed out, the American cops do things as they do for a reason and that is the high incidence of gun ownership, the high level of street violence, the fact that most cops are 'single crewed' and the amount of cops killed in the line of duty.
The Rodney King one is a good example.......one side of it was motorist dragged out of car and beaten unmercilessly, repeatedly for no apparent reason........the other side of it was 'crack cocaine' had just become a known phenomena over there, there'd been a number of people who had acted like madmen on it and even when shot (using the police known to be underpowered hand guns) had failed to be subdued at all & Mr King was well known to them for extreme violence.........
i'm not excusing it at all, as i don't know enough about those two subjects, but what i do know is there is usually two sides to most stories and one snapshot doesn't cover it
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wonder if the girl got stung again at the court.
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Yesterday was one of those days when the area was in semi-logjam and there were temporary traffic lights all over the place because now a small hole in the road has to be surrounded by a squash-court-sized wire cage with blocks of tyre-threatening concrete sticking out in all directions.
I was going to be late to meet someone, so in a slow-moving traffic jam I got my phone out and called him. I broke the law thereby but of course did nothing remotely dangerous.
We both arrived at our meeting point, the world's best pub, at the same time. He had been travelling by tube, on the Northern Line.
The devil's curse on nanny regulations, car-hating politicians, moronic borough councils and up-yours-jack building contractors.
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Lud, you're a dude.
Where is the world's best pub then?
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Do forgive me stevied, but I'd rather not name it if you will forgive me. It's about 5 minutes' walk due north from Camden Town tube.
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Mmmm! I am a northerner, but I did used to live in Hackney, amongst other places whilst at Uni.... it's not the World's End, cos that's about 15 seconds walk, plus is in no danger of being the world's best pub!
I will respect your mysteriousness! : )
My fave pub in London is probably The Albion in Bethnal Green. But that's more nostalgia than anything else. Good board games though!!
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Very tolerant of you stevied.
I'm terrified by the thought of br elements turning up there and either counting my drinks or teasing me about my motor.
I'm sure you would be OK though.
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Well, I don't mind ridicule, so If you or anyone else is ever in Nantwich, come to the Bowling Green. It's badly decorated, they've often not got much beer in, there isn't a lock on the toilet door and the urinals are broken so that if you're unfortunate enough to have an ill-timed wazz, you look like you've wet yourself. Additionally, the bar staff spend more time smoking and reading Custom car magazines than serving*.
However, despite all this, we love it! The collection of eccentrics in there is exceptional.
* One of the bar staff has one of those cars that dances, an old Chevy of some description. Another one has a gangsta-ed Mercedes S class coupé (Alt 130) that is battered enough to be cool.
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