New mobile phone laws - your views

I think I'm in the same boat as Ping and others, great idea in principle but as has been said, won't necessarily result in less people using mobile phones becuase there aren't enough police officers on the road to catch people.

Now, if someone can develop a safety camera that can catch mobile phone users as well...

Options as far as I see it:
1) Ban ALL use of mobile telecommunications in cars. This would be difficult to police, but offenders should be castrated, literally
2) Ban all cars & vans. More space for my bike on the roads.

Option 2 gets my vote, anyone else?

Had a chav in his Sh!troen pull out of a side street and nearly write of the Merc the other day cus he was on the phone.

Good idea, in favor of it not sure how well enforced it will be. Have they stepped up the penalty if you involved in a accident and found to be on the phone?

[timwilky]

My brother has been fined 3 times for using his phone. so some police officers obviously do enforce the rules. I was with him when he answered a call last week. I had to tell him to pull over. so yes increased fine and points are well overdue.

Originally Posted by Grinch

Have they stepped up the penalty if you involved in a accident and found to be on the phone?

Telford lorry driver jailed for 4 years yesterday for killing two girls in a smash - his truck rear ended the car in which they were passengers, moments after he had ended a call from his mobile.

I have seen some reasonably solid looking studies that suggested that using a hands free compared to using a normal mobile phone does not make you that much safer.

The issue seems to be in having the phone conversation, rather than the method you speak. The same study (I think) also rated people who work long shifts (ie docs) to be as poor at driving on the way home than a person driving over the legal alc limit.

I know in Ireland that there is a massive problem with people driving very tired.
I am not saying that the hands free law is a waste of time. Its a good thing. But, I think that a public awareness thing on driving tired would be no harm at all. I know that I have had heavy eyes on the bike on the way home through the Holland tunnel on a Friday night on the Bike. I had to severely slap myself about on that on for a minute. (This is a U rated site though so, the less said the better.)

[Kylie]

Has to be a good thing, long overdue. Yes people will still get away with it, just like most of us still get away with going over 70mph, but the worst offenders will get points and someone on their phone but keeping an eye out for the police is a bit safer than someone on their phone not looking.

I don't understand how the new law defines "hands-free". If I have a handsfree yoke I still have to look at the phone to dial the number (because voice dialling is rubbish and rarely used), which is still time I should be watching the road. Is dialling a number while driving permitted or not?

Personally, I think it should be an even higher penalty.

3 points and £60 is what you get for going 10% + 2mph over the limit. Which is more dangerous, doing 35mph or doing 30mph with a phone in your hand?

It will be hard to police. Realistically, only traffic officers are going to want to pull people for it and they're getting fewer and further between.

Yes on balance it's a good thing. Whether effective or not, who knows.

It would be better if there could be a presumption that driving whilst on the phone is driving without due care and attention, cos there are higher penalties for that, and then the court could decide an appropriate penalty to reflect the actual circumstances. All very well being able to gibe a ticket for using a phone but the fine and the points are too inflexible.

I totally back it, and wish it was tougher. Saying it won't make a difference is not quite accurate, e.g. if you argue to the extreme, capitol punishment for the offence would certainly bring down the numbers, so a higher fine and points will make a difference.