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Using a mobile while driving

Given the heated nature of Charlton related debate I thought Id raise a non-controversial subject.

6 points and up to £2k fine if caught using even if the car is stationary in traffic or at lights.

Ban if passed test in last two years.

Good safety move or nanny state

Discuss.
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Comments

  • Good safety move. Stationary is a bit harsh but you're still in control of the vehicle.

    They're distracting and drastically effect reaction times.
  • edited March 2017
    It's a fact of life that we can't concentrate on more than one thing at a time so sitting in traffic or at lights just means that somebody on their phone has temporarily lost that peripheral awareness of what's happening outside the car. How many times have you/we've all had to sound our car horns at the vehicle in front because they've not noticed the lights have changed or the traffic in front on them has moved on because they were concentrating on something else ?

    Of course, and as the law isn't just about mobile phones I fully expect most police officers to be suspended in the coming weeks if they drive with their radios on, sat navs and other electronic screen based equipment working.
  • Drivers have to stop doing this. Period. There are so many hands free devices available now that there is absolutely no excuse. I get the feeling that with some it's considered a macho thing to do. This is intolerable and the penalties need to reflect that.

    Hands free doesn't mean you can use them. If the police officer considers you are distracted you are busted.
  • for example i use my iphone in a holder as my sat nav, is that classed as using a mobile?, if i touch the screen to clear a text message?.
  • Good call but as always you need police on the streets/roads to enforce it. I see people on a daily basis talking/texting on their phones whilst driving, what I do not see on a daily basis is police patrol cars.

    And of course the courts need to be able to collect the money/enforce the ban if a driver is caught. I read an article last week saying something along the lines of the number of banned drivers being caught driving whilst serving a current ban has increased by something like 80%?
  • I always make sure I keep mine out of reach just in case I was tempted (not that I think I ever would).

    Read an interview with Noel Gallagher a while ago and he said he was in a car with Paul Weller, who was driving. At one point he said he was driving, smoking, using his phone and calling a cyclist a c**t all at the same time.

    Said he was shitting himself but thought afterwards how cool it would be to die in a car crash with Paul Weller.
  • Good move:

    I rest my case:

    Winchester Crown Court September 2016:
    A van driver with eight previous convictions for using his phone at the wheel killed a cyclist after reading a text message, just weeks after magistrates let him keep his licence.

    Christopher Gard, 30, was jailed for nine years after he ploughed into keen cyclist Lee Martin, 48, who was competing in a ten mile time trial event.

    And this, sadly, is not the only example
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  • Good move:

    I rest my case:

    Winchester Crown Court September 2016:
    A van driver with eight previous convictions for using his phone at the wheel killed a cyclist after reading a text message, just weeks after magistrates let him keep his licence.

    Christopher Gard, 30, was jailed for nine years after he ploughed into keen cyclist Lee Martin, 48, who was competing in a ten mile time trial event.

    And this, sadly, is not the only example

    Thanks Cherry, that is the point I was trying to make. Disgusting story sadly made worse by our failing legal system.
  • shine166 said:

    Great idea, the GF moaned 'everyone does it though' well thats not the point is it... stop being cunts and use siri if you really need to make a make on your way home

    Exactly. How important can a phone call be that you haven't got time to find a safe place to stop?
    'im on the way home babe, how was your day'

    ..... exactly the fking same as if you asked me in person after your 15 minute commute home !
  • Drivers have to stop doing this. Period. There are so many hands free devices available now that there is absolutely no excuse. I get the feeling that with some it's considered a macho thing to do. This is intolerable and the penalties need to reflect that.

    Hands free doesn't mean you can use them. If the police officer considers you are distracted you are busted.
    Indeed. But, oh the irony this am on BBC Breakfast.
    A police officer (No 1153 - if Cambridge Constabulary are interested) lecturing us proles on being distracted.... while driving along with his attention focused on the BBC cameraman and journalist in his passenger seats instead of the road as he waved his hands around and failed to look in his rear view mirror! Classy bit of driving - not.
  • some woman this morning was on her phone whilst driving a tractor, tank, cuntmobile, BMW Jeep indicating the wrong way and nearly catching out two people crossing thinking she was turning. no apology just sped off.
  • I'm not sure it should stop with phones, to be honest. A van coming towards me forced me off the road recently because he was reading something from a clipboard. I clipped a stone wall, burst a tyre and was £150 worse off. He was blissfully unaware and drove on. It could have been a lot worse.
  • Greenie said:

    Sat Navs should be next, people who drive and take their eyes of the road to look at their Sat Navs are just a danger to themselves and other road users.

    It's already an offence, along with radios and anything else you want to use in the car that can distract you.
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  • Stick your phone in the boot of the car when driving. Why would you want to talk to somebody on it while driving a car.

    Nothing's that important.

    Good move but still mostly unenforceable.

  • Carter said:

    I do a lot of driving and at present my van doesn't have a Bluetooth hands free, so the phone doesn't get answered. The sat nav is in my periphery and the dash cam is tucked in the corner. If I was on commission for the amount of people using mobile phones whilst driving I could retire

    I've witnessed first hand at least three accidents where I've seen people on the phone in one guise or another and I've seen the consequences of more than I care to think about. I think it's brilliant the police are finally taking this seriously. For years enforcing speed limits has been seen as the way to ensure road safety when it just isn't the case. Unsafe driving is the cause of danger and death be that ignorance of traffic law such as lane hogging/not driving on the left, speeding, driving whilst on the phone (talking on the phone is one thing, scrolling through it is abhorrent and lethal, drink driving, I could go on)

    It's accepted now that drink driving is socially and legally unacceptable and the punishments reflect that in the main, using a mobile phone should be equally as socially unacceptable.

    The Bluetooth built on my car means I don't have to take my hands off the wheel. Not that I'm so popular I get a raft of calls but it means I'm not losing concentration.

    I'm the first one to question the feds when they do daft things or announce new initiatives but this is spot on and hopefully heralds a new era of traffic police and police in general beating sense and awareness into the more ignorant and dangerous drivers we have on these shores

    All the above, BUT, as Edmund King (AA bloke) alluded to on the Beeb this morning, if it is support by the Police, i.e. they have enough coppers on patrol. However they dont, they have left road safety down to (stealth tax) cameras, that do fuck all for safety.
    So initially there will be a run of drivers getting caught, but in the next few months it will all get forgotten about, and the only time drivers will get nicked is if they have an accident and their phone history is checked or witnessed, the same as drunk driving, I cant tell you the last time I have been driving home after a Friday/Saturday night out, say between 11.30 pm and 2 am and seen a copper on patrol outside a town centre.
    Its a sad indictment that our Parliament make laws that cannot be enforced because they simply dont have enough Police Officers to enforce the law.
  • lost a pal because of some cunt that decided to have a drink and drive, so do agree with the complete ban on drink driving, with the constant changing of roads how on earth are people meant to get places without sat navs etc, im a relatively new driver under a year, and i use my phone as a sat nav a lot dont text on it, or take calls, but have it in a holder that plugs into my air vent.
  • Not enough, it should be a £1000 fine and 6 month straight ban. imo

    Jail is too much and would put unnecessary strain on an already overstretched system

    Spot on.
  • edited March 2017
    a police presence on a road tends to make us all take a little more care and law abiding so if the police were told to get out on the road and start nicking drivers for talking on their mobiles there would presumeably be a reduction in other issues they'd normally have to deal with. New York cleaned its act up because the police were told to get out on the streets and target the minor issues and low life criminals.
  • for example i use my iphone in a holder as my sat nav, is that classed as using a mobile?, if i touch the screen to clear a text message?.

    You're allowed to use minimal contact, stuff like turning the heating off/changing radio station.

    This was a helpful tweet sent from surrey police:

  • Greenie said:

    Sat Navs should be next, people who drive and take their eyes of the road to look at their Sat Navs are just a danger to themselves and other road users.

    It's already an offence, along with radios and anything else you want to use in the car that can distract you.
    ....strictly speaking...

    while it is okay to use your phone as a sat nav (as long as it is secured in a holder correctly, and out of the 45-degree angle of the driver’s view) - you can not press buttons on it while you are driving.


    You can use your phone as a sat nav, but you can not touch it or reprogramme it while driving.

    Using a sat nav while driving can be a factored in a careless or dangerous driving charge if it distracts you.

    There is no law barring you from eating while driving, however motorists can be prosecuted for careless driving if they are distracted by their food.

    Drinking soft drinks is fine too, as long as it does not take over your attention. And remember to be careful with hot drinks.


    You are allowed to change radio stations while at the wheel, but again, if it does distract you and cause you to demonstrate careless driving, then you could be prosecuted.





  • Phone manufacturers need to also play their part.

    I use google maps on my android handset and it keeps the screen clear of notifications but I've used my work iPhone before and when you get notifications on it, they don't clear and block your route.

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