Driving while using a mobile phone

Now this is a major pet hate of mine, I've been known to turn the bike around to follow someone to a point where I can knock on thier window and tell them to "hang up the ****ing phone" I understand in recent years we've become a little obsessed with been connected but if your that important then get blue tooth, simples!

Rant over for me but discussion time for you kiddywinks: When the police first enforced the no hand held phone use whilst driving law there was a period where I didnt see many people at all using a phone (it was the first time I'd witnessed a law actually work over night). But more and more often now people seem to be taking the chance again. Am I the only one or is this a nationwide observation?

My rant was spawned from on returning home from football a long stright road leaving Dewsbury there was a driver coming the other way with the side of her face was lit up by the phone. As she got closer I could see she was clearly on the phone laughing and paying very little attention to the road. Even better was the sight of a white volvo following (practically tailgating) she was completley oblivious to it been there, now you'd have thought that the big blue letters or the hi-viz strips on this volvo would have been a give away never mind that it must have been behind her for at the very least a quater mile from the previous side road. Needless to say as they passed the sky was lit up by blue flashing lights which gave me some joy. But if I ever needed convincing that it is a distraction, then to not notice a fully marked car following closely behind just goes to show how oblivious using a hand held phone can make a driver.

[timwilky]

My twin bro is a biker/ex biker/biker as the sun shines/wallet fills etc.

He has been done twice for using his mobile whilst driving. He phoned me this morning to borrow my stihl and went dead mid conversation.

Suddenly he says sorry about that, shouldn't use the mobile with the police next to me. Daft bugger, knows not to. knows why. has been hit in the pocket for it and still does it.

My employers have changed their rules. At one time all our cars were fitted with hands free. Now the rule is you turn your phone off when driving.

i actually enjoy giving out tickets for this, even more so since i started riding-the excuses are brilliant "i wasn't using it i was just listening" and "i was just heating the battery up in my hand"-yeh fair do's-theres your ticket.

[flymo]

mmm, I have mixed feelings over this. Using a phone is no more dangerous than fiddling with the radio or rummaging in a bag for lipstick etc etc. Personally I think there are times when its perfectly safe and other times when its obviously not safe. It comes down to common sense.

I have to admit, it winds me up when I see people in £50000 cars on the phone. If you can afford and M5, you can afford a £30 bluetooth headset.

Originally Posted by flymo

mmm, I have mixed feelings over this. Using a phone is no more dangerous than fiddling with the radio or rummaging in a bag for lipstick etc etc. Personally I think there are times when its perfectly safe and other times when its obviously not safe. It comes down to common sense.

+1

I use a handsfree myself but how can using a mobile be more dangerous than following some stupid bint rumaging in her handbag for her lighter and then having a cigarette whilst driving?

[Mr Speirs]

I saw something that made me chuckle and ghast in the sheer stupidity.

I was sat at a T Junction waiting to turn right when a car turned right onto the road I was waiting at. He tried to cut the corner then realised I was there and made a ham fisted attempt to correct himself, barely succeeded and went on his way...whilst using one hand to hold a harmonica to his mouth while he played!!!

Originally Posted by flymo

mmm, I have mixed feelings over this. Using a phone is no more dangerous than fiddling with the radio or rummaging in a bag for lipstick etc etc. Personally I think there are times when its perfectly safe and other times when its obviously not safe. It comes down to common sense.

Its a good point, about the use of other things in the car but I dont wear lipstick so that rules me out there lol and the radio takes 2 seconds to glance and plant you finger on the button so its not really the same. Changing CD could be classed as the same but then again we're not meant to do that whilst driving either its just quite hard to enforce that as it generally takes place in your lap where other motorists cant see.
Besides a conversation can go on for ages and the longer it does the more distracted the driver becomes. I seem to think that as bikers we ride constantly assesing and considering the what if's. But car drivers drive along only really thinking when they reach junctions, the bits between junctions dont get a second thought. So you give them a phone conversation and this means when they reach a junction they'll continue the conversation and not focus on the road.

If someone pulled out on me and caused an accident I'd be gutted, if they were using a phone i'd be arrested for assult.

A friend of a friend was following me in the car a couple of months ago chatting away on the phone and seemingly not paying ablind bit of attention to the road (had to brake hard as my student slowed for a mini-roundabout). Later, I sent my mate a text saying something along lines of 'tell your brother in law that I just witnessed him almost crash because he was on the phone'.

The reason I specifically used the word 'witnessed'? He is plod!

One rule for one...

Originally Posted by flymo

mmm, I have mixed feelings over this. Using a phone is no more dangerous than fiddling with the radio or rummaging in a bag for lipstick etc etc. Personally I think there are times when its perfectly safe and other times when its obviously not safe. It comes down to common sense.

That all depends on how familiar you are with your possessions, and what phone you have.

I know my car stereo/climate control/cruise control inside out and to change something takes very little thought, one button press, and is a spilt second distraction. My wife needs to stab at buttons for 30 seconds to figure out which one changes a CD or to changes the temperature.

She can make a call in seconds just by hitting the down key, finding the number and hitting the green key. I have a Windows mobile PDA and I have to get a stylus out or precision stab at the screen with a fingernail to get Start, Contacts, M, Mum, Home, Call on the touchscreen to call my mother for instance. On the move with a fingernail as a stylus it's near on impossible and certainly very dangerous, so I just won't do it.

I don't use a hand held phone on the move, 'cos I don't want to get caught and my car has bluetooth hands free built in. It annoys me when you see someone trying to negotiate Tesco's car park, doing gears, steering and handbrake with one hand, but driving along on a motorway one-handed isn't really that dangerous, I have one arm on the armrest on the motorway anyway.

It's actually the conversation that distracts you, not the physical act of holding a phone to your ear. I can't explain why but it is more distracting (for me anyway) than having a conversation with a passenger. It may be because most of my in car phone calls are for work, so I need to be concentrating properly on what I am hearing, and thinking about my responses.

I can be mid-conversation, hands-free on bluetooth, on the motorway and when I hang up the phone, I suddenly realise I'm in a 50mph average speed camera zone with roadworks. I'm doing 50 because the car in front is, but that's the only reason, I couldn't tell you when the 50 limit started, something that would never be the case if I wasn't on the phone.

The long and short of it is that it's distracting (possibly dangerous) and I shouldn't be doing it, but because it's all legal with a phone holder and bluetooth, and it means that I can get some work done during my travel time, I do.

I don't call round town, or in a car park, I'll wait 'til I'm on open road, but if somebody calls me I will pick it up. I have my regular numbers and my work reception on voice dial, and use reception to transfer me onto anyone else. Maybe I should switch my phone off, but that would mean I have a load of voicemails to deal with and return phone calls to make after every journey.