New penalties for using a hand held phone whilst driving

[Heddy]

200 quid and 6 points? Do they want to stop this or just slow it down a bit? As above, £1000 fine, 12mths ban plus a re-test sounds good.

[jackatesme]

They can make as many rules and regulations as they like,but due to this governments obsession with cut backs there is nobody around to enforce them.
The only time i have seen a police car car in our town it's going to an incident that is already been committed.

[Georgies Dad]

Originally Posted by coolcat

As is talking to your passengers, eating a boiled sweet, singing along to the radio, picking your nose, admiring passing 75's and ZT's and many other distractions!

Any lapse in concentration or distraction can have terrible consequences but let's put some perspective on this.
Most accidents caused by peeps on the phone is the act of only having one hand on the wheel or looking at the phone display and not out the windscreen.

Talking on a hands free device means both hands are controlling the car and your eyes should be on the road, same as if talking to a passenger in the car at the time.
Don't see how that is any different, having said that, I limit any conversation I have handsfree in the car to as short as possible and would usually say "I'll call you back when I've stopped"

How do you know I pick my nose

[Leyland Worldmaster]

Originally Posted by w44nty

How do you know I pick my nose

Which one did you choose today Steve? Okay... rubbish joke. I'll

Good points made about cutbacks. More visible policing is needed!

[FLYER]

I reckon my idea would have an effect .

Take the name of the company on the vehicle .

Email them or text them or when possible phone them .

Eat away at them .

People power.

[Elliott]

I see them all the time on the A2/M2 in the morning and evening driving along chatting away on their phones but they are in newish top line Audi's and BMW's and other marques so you know they must have hands free but just can't bothered to use it I guess. Go figure. What are you gonna do. Annoys the hell out of me, I've been to my local Police station in Sittingbourne with reg numbers time and dates and just a shrug from the front desk, with a nothing we can do.

Maybe all fitting camera's in our cars and giving the videos in, May make a difference to our boys in blue!!!

[Christopher Price]

All we need now, are some Traffic Police to enforce it.

[Avulon]

Originally Posted by coolcat

Time to think about hands free in the car peeps..........we can help with that

Seriously though, it's a good thing that this is being clamped down on......it's being openly abused by just about every other motorist it would seem and too many lives are being destroyed as a consequence !

See below

Originally Posted by stevestrat

Biggest problem is Police are so thin on the ground now, people know they are unlikely to be pulled.

Yep, It's not the penalty that dissuades it's knowing that enforcement is active that makes people think twice before breaking laws.

Originally Posted by Dallas

Try THIS...

Using hands-free is just as dangerous, its still a distraction.

Of course it is but as already agreed so are many things. It's the degree of distraction that is at issue. That 'test' is specifically designed to make over 80% of people fail. 'Hit the space bar whenever the voice (from the phone) asks you a question' Why? I shouldn't be paying that voice sufficient attention to do that. different points for different coloured shirts? Is this a maths/colour blindness test? or seeing who would be best if it was death race 2000? The test is patently ridiculous. But for the having to press the space bar I'd ignore the voice everytime pedestrians were crossing my path. If you want much more realistic driving distraction tests then lookup the tests for spotting 'developing hazards' (part of the current driving exam) and then do those whilst chatting on the phone!

Originally Posted by coolcat

As is talking to your passengers, eating a boiled sweet, singing along to the radio, picking your nose, admiring passing 75's and ZT's and many other distractions!

Any lapse in concentration or distraction can have terrible consequences but let's put some perspective on this.
Most accidents caused by peeps on the phone is the act of only having one hand on the wheel or looking at the phone display and not out the windscreen.

Talking on a hands free device means both hands are controlling the car and your eyes should be on the road, same as if talking to a passenger in the car at the time.
Don't see how that is any different, having said that, I limit any conversation I have handsfree in the car to as short as possible and would usually say "I'll call you back when I've stopped"

Not all drivers can manage to talk (or listen) in a conversatin and keep their attention on the road either, but then they should never have been allowed to pass a test in the first place.

Originally Posted by jackatesme

They can make as many rules and regulations as they like,but due to this governments obsession with cut backs there is nobody around to enforce them.
The only time i have seen a police car car in our town it's going to an incident that is already been committed.

Not just this government - it's been every one since before I took any notice of politics - certainly at least since Maggie and probably earlier. It's not a party political thing, that's for sure.

lack of enforcement means that the penalty for getting caught is largely irrelevant. In fact as a risk assesment you' have a calculation

e.g. 'chance of getting caught' = 1% multiplied by 'severity of punishment' where 1 is a police caution and 100 is life sentence = 3: so 1 x 3 = 3 : out of 10,000! so who cares? So for the majority of driving offences except speeding past a camera chance of getting caught is practically nil unless an accident causing 'serious' injury is involved. So it doesn't really matter unless the punishment is so severe like 5 years minimum prison sentence. (e.g. 30 on our 1 - 100 scale).


Rant over.

One thing I do do though, only if it wouldn't cause problems itself is to use my horn whenever I see a driver holding mobile phone to the side of their head: just to make sure that they are aware of my presence of course . (more so if I'm riding rather than driving as well).

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[Gate Keeper]

Originally Posted by barney bear

2017 the penalties for using a hand held phone to call or text are set to double to 6 points and a £200 fine. Any thoughts?


I happen to agree that the penalties should be raised, it's one of the most dangerous things people can do while they are behind the wheel and it does my head in seeing it day in day out.

Thank you Tony, clearly the penalties are not harsh enough. Last year 22 road deaths in the UK, were proven to be attributed to the use of mobile phones whilst driving (Radio 4 yesterday).

As you know I live out Kenya, where the carnage amounted to 3000 road deaths in one year. As a consequence, drivers caught using a mobile phone are arrested and face up to 6 months in prison, plus severe fines.

[Parker]

It's shocking to see people texting and driving. We wouldn't read a book whilst at the wheel so why a mobile? When I was in my early twenties, I was fiddling with the radio to find a station lost all attention on the road, result hit the curb; what if the car mounted it and people were there. Shook me up and from that day I always made sure the radio was set before setting off, thankfully technology has moved on with RDS etc. Now.

Mobiles you just get so involved your mind considers nothing else, let alone controlling a car at speed.