Would You Use Your Mobile Phone While Driving?

[sjbarca]

A err Polish lorry driver who killed a mother and three children while distracted by his phone has been jailed for 10 years.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j ... u89wsU0j9A

[sjbarca]

A devastated dad is 'in bits' after watching four of his family members die when their car was shunted under a lorry during an eight-vehicle horror crash.

Mark Goldsmith was driving along the A34 near Newbury, Berkshire, with his 13-year-old son, Jake, on Wednesday evening when the tragedy occurred as they returned from a family holiday.

He looked on in horror as his partner Tracy Houghton's car, which was travelling in front of him, was crushed by the larger vehicle shortly after 5pm.

The impact killed the 45-year-old mum and her two sons, Ethan, 13, and Josh, 11, as well as Mr Goldsmith's own 11-year-old daughter, Amy.

But remarkably, the family's beloved Labrador, Honey, survived the disaster - after apparently fleeing from the wrecked car and running off.

[m4 colin]

A horrible preventable tragedy, but sadly an unenforceable law not even catching one in a thousand. the only way to stop this kind of thing is some kind of tech that shuts off phones when a vehicle engine is running. I'm afraid people will be stupid arseholes, as well as the grand you get fined an HGV driver loses his license
but it still dont stop em.

[theleader82]

I see lots of,women texting while driving and I find it,quite,worrying. I see van drivers with the phone in one hand and other on steering wheel , so at least they have some control. To send a text you have to look away from the road at,your phone

[AlcoholBrazil]

Seen people read newspapers and books at the wheel with no idea of the speed they are doing . Texting is madness.
I hate even talking on phones, and calls are often less than 20 seconds long.

[warmleatherette]

I have a Ford that has built in Bluetooth handsfree which is excellent, it even reads text messages and plays music and lets you choose from your iPod with voice command but looking at the footage and reading about this he was distracted by choosing music from a list on his phone, my system has that option on a built in screen on the dash operated by buttons on the steering wheel obviously designed to do much the same, scary stuff and I guess perfectly legal

[Hillman avenger]

I see lots of,women texting while driving and I find it,quite,worrying. I see van drivers with the phone in one hand and other on steering wheel , so at least they have some control. To send a text you have to look away from the road at,your phone

Women?
I see lots of people doing it

[The Ghost of Alex Higgins]

I see dead people

[Zambo]

I see lots of,women texting while driving and I find it,quite,worrying. I see van drivers with the phone in one hand and other on steering wheel , so at least they have some control. To send a text you have to look away from the road at,your phone

Women?
I see lots of people doing it

Both sexes as bad as one another. The last one I saw was a woman though, well Mrs Z did sitting on the front passenger side. I Was going right round a roundabout near my house a couple of days ago and I'd reached the last but one exit when some stupid bitch was approaching the roundabout doing about 40. And yes in one hand was a mobile phone which she was looking at. Thank Christ she realised she had reached the roundabout just in time to slam her brakes on, otherwise there would have been a tidy mess.

[Petingo]

I have seen women apply make up while driving.

Still do sometimes, in fact.

(t' big girl sees nowt wrong with it...says she often did it herself when, as a younger woman, she was running late for work...according to her, women are capable of such things as they are better at "multi tasking" than us mere men are )

And once when being driven to a black tie affair by a chum, I suddenly noticed he had his thighs wedged at either side of the steering wheel, holding it in position, as he used his hands to put his bow tie on, as we proceeded along California 5 in Orange County.

[Zambo]

I have seem women apply make up while driving.

That gives me the shits if I see one doing that in the rear view, because they are usually tailgating as well.

[Petingo]

I have seem women apply make up while driving.

That gives me the shits if I see one doing that in the rear view, because they are usually tailgating as well.

Yip.....if they are close enough for you to see them then they are way too close.

[Reg]

I have seem women apply make up while driving.

That gives me the shits if I see one doing that in the rear view, because they are usually tailgating as well.

Yip.....if they are close enough for you to see them then they are way too close.

Indeed.

Get that close to Ol' Pet and she'll be number 326 before you can say "Casanova of Orange County".

[Petingo]

I have seem women apply make up while driving.

That gives me the shits if I see one doing that in the rear view, because they are usually tailgating as well.

Yip.....if they are close enough for you to see them then they are way too close.

Indeed.

Get that close to Ol' Pet and she'll be number 326 before you can say "Casanova of Orange County".

[Sid Pervcat]

I have seem women apply make up while driving.

That gives me the shits if I see one doing that in the rear view, because they are usually tailgating as well.

Yip.....if they are close enough for you to see them then they are way too close.

Fucking slam on.
That'll teach them.

[Zambo]

I've done that with blokss a few times but wouldn't risk it with bints.

[sjbarca]

Daily Mail catches 17 foreign truckers using their phones at 50mph
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j ... 2246,d.d2s

[AlcoholBrazil]

Daily Mail catches 17 foreign truckers using their phones at 50mph

And how many of those 17 will be prosecuted by our police ?

[m4 colin]

Daily Mail catches 17 foreign truckers using their phones at 50mph

And how many of those 17 will be prosecuted by our police ?

Probably none . Impound the lorry and sell both it and the load to fund more motorway police . lets see them explain that to their European near gangster bosses.

[Hillman avenger]

Daily Mail catches 17 foreign truckers using their phones at 50mph

And how many of those 17 will be prosecuted by our police ?

Probably none . Impound the lorry and sell both it and the load to fund more motorway police . lets see them explain that to their European near gangster bosses.

Bllody hell

Norbert Detressangle and the rest?

[Royal24s]

If we devoted the same effort and resources to drug dealers and burglars that we do to this, would that improve things a bit ?

[Zambo]

If we devoted the same effort and resources to drug dealers and burglars that we do to this, would that improve things a bit ?

That is the problem surely, that there is hardly any resources put into enforcing the law with regards to phone use whilst driving.

[Royal24s]

Not really. I hesitate to comment on this because people get upset with me, but dishing out fixed penalty notices for using telephones whilst driving is the ultimate soft target policing.
It's considered an excuse for not doing anything else and anyone can do it all day with minimum effort because there's an infinite number of people openly doing it, and it requires no investigation or paperwork before or after the event.
It's probably a bit dangerous, but where it sits on the list of priorities when people are dialing 999 because they're getting stabbed and waiting an hour or more, I know that we disagree upon.

[Zambo]

Not really. I hesitate to comment on this because people get upset with me, but dishing out fixed penalty notices for using telephones whilst driving is the ultimate soft target policing.
It's considered an excuse for not doing anything else and anyone can do it all day with minimum effort because there's an infinite number of people openly doing it, and it requires no investigation or paperwork before or after the event.
It's probably a bit dangerous, but where it sits on the list of priorities when people are dialing 999 because they're getting stabbed and waiting an hour or more, I know that we disagree upon.

Dishing out fix penalty notices for this offence is woefully inadequate anyway. However, unless you are going to put the resources in to enforce any law, it's a waste of time. We have just seen in the news the cunt who killed four people whilst driving lethal weapon for over one km without looking at the road once, and he has been imprisoned for 10 years (which really means less than 5 if he keeps his guest room tidy).

It pisses me off no end to hear people say, he has to live with that for the rest of his life, and that is sufficient punishment, and whilst I will concede that there was no intent on his part to kill four people, that is absolutely nothing to the sentence the family of the deceased has for the rest of their lives. He knew the risks, he knew what he was doing was illegal, so fuck him, I'd let him rot, and I hope he gets a good kicking every day he is in jail.

Priorities and comparisons? Well yes, there should be a difference between the punishment for murder v causing death by dangerous driving, but it's set too low for the latter, and that goes for murder also. It's really a pointless argument though, unless any law can be applied and enforced.

[m4rkb]

According to a report on the radio last week, they have technology available to be integrated into speed cameras which can supposedly recognise a driver holding a phone with 99% accuracy. I'd say the people doing this are most easily caught when at the lights, but then again I'm a little uneasy with the totally catch all crime of just toughing a mobile phone while driving. Being stationary at the lights to my mind is actually safe.

But this could surely be self funding from any fines raises which plays into the other bugbear of mine in using it as a cashcow. Perhaps the answer is to give drivers a £25 reward if they can photograph another driver doing it - as well as send the other driver a fine for holding the phone whilst taking the picture.