Driving whilst using mobile phone

[Biker Biggles]

Originally Posted by Stu

Glad 90% of the org have never fractured a law - you bunch of hypocrites

No no,Im a perfect fully law abiding citizen and never ever step outside it.

I promise I am

Originally Posted by Stu

Glad 90% of the org have never fractured a law - you bunch of hypocrites

Thats not the point ....

The point is that if we did break the law, and you get caught ....... you take the concequences .....

[Biker Biggles]

Originally Posted by LK-SV

Thats not the point ....

The point is that if we did break the law, and you get caught ....... you take the concequences .....

Not me mate.If the law is an ass you break it and try to get away with it any old way you can.I dont hold with all this compliant society and "man up and take it if you get caught" bollox.

Bit of a derail sorry because I do agree that driving without due care is wrong and should be illegal,but not confined to mobile phone use.I see that as the tip of the iceburg and rather too easy a nick so boxes can be ticked while gormless drivers can carry on driving badly.

[Spiderman]

Well i'm glad a few people on here like me actually live in the real world and give their opinions based on that and not some "higher than thou" attitude.

When i used to drive a car admit there were occasion that i'd use a mobile. Those occasions were, to me, vital occasions. Calling the office to explain there was a crash and i was gonna be late again....when my job was already on the line.
Taking a call from a client who was a big cheese and hard to get hold of otherwise...those kind of things.

As Ralph said about his sis and her hands free kit...just the act of having a conversation takes your concentration away. And i was always fully aware of this so i made my calls short and quick.
Personally i'd like to see the law changed to say you can use a hands free kit either as i think having one hand clamped to your ear, or driving lazily with one hand on the wheel whilst chatting on a hands free is pretty much the same thing. Especially if your driving in congested cities.
However thats not the question posed.

And as BB says, i'll do my best to get out of complying with the law if what i'm doing is not hurting or upsetting anyone. Hell we do it every friday night in soho at our meet, we park on double yellow lines and cover or remove our plates. The local cops laugh or just dont give a damn.

Would all of you who are whiter than white in this thread like to see all the soho massive meets clamped down on and all of us issued with tickets from the cops for failing to display our plates? Allow me to say this in advance...anyone who says yes to hat question is a very, very sad individual imo.

my 5p
in this situation i belive that mystical thing that they have tried (quite sucsessfully) to remove from our humble bobby should be used
common sence
yes technically its illegal but at 5mph worst case synario is he bumps the car/bike infront minimul damage and his insurance pays out, yes have a word informing him that (he is as well i hasten to add) you the friendly copper are giving him a by but not to do it again, there is far too much petty policing being conducted currently and i dont know about the rest of you but it would start to claw back some faith in the system for me
that is all_

p.s best rule ever
police discresion 10% +2 love that one

No spiderman i dont want to to get a ticket. If nobody notice or cares stopping on double lines game on

Back to the op, should he book him, yes he was stopped for breaking the law. Now if the police turned a blind eye and let him carry on thats up to them.

My post is about people who chat for ages while driving somewhere.

Like it was stated before, everbody breaks the law in many ways, if you get caught thats the chance you take.

When I had my off, the recovery driver was constantly on his (handheld) phone on the way back. Very much like the 'drive with your elbows' Peugeot van advert on the radio.

I was recently route learning in North Wales with a local manager. His van was in the shop so he'd been forced to borrow another manager's company car, and that meant no compatible handsfree cradle for his phone. He pretty much HAS TO answer the calls (in case there's an emergency) but this meant driving along using the handheld phone until I found someplace to turn it. Slightly unnerving.

I had a call while I was in Ontario, driving along the 401 highway. This wasn't illegal there at the time so I picked up my phone and answered, thinking it was my friend I was on the way to visit. But it wasn't him, it was O2, continuing their harassment trying to get me to upgrade. They started trying to offer me extras, including a hands free kit. I told them I didn't want one. Obviously hearing the road noise, they asked what hands free kit I was using at the moment. I told them I wasn't, and was amused by the shocked pause when they realized I was driving using a handheld phone.

I don't enjoy doing it as the loss of attention and control is very apparent, and is only slightly diminished by a handsfree kit. Heck, I find someone else in the car talking on a phone distracting, it's something about the cadence of the conversation.

Originally Posted by davepreston

yes technically its illegal but at 5mph worst case synario is he drifts into the lane next to him, crushing some poor biker trying to filter.

Fixed

[flymo]

how is it then safe for a police officer to use a hand held radio mic while driving? Happens every week on 'road wars'.

I'm never a fan of blanket bans such as this, it should depend totally on the circumstances and the discretion of the police officer.