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WHY!!!!!!!!

Calls aren’t the problem, it’s texting/Facebook/WhatsApp/Tiktok/Browsing the internet etc etc etc.
 
It’s no different to talking to a passenger…
Even my dirt cheap car links to my phone by Bluetooth so I can receive a call without taking my hands off the wheel or eyes off the road.

safety pressure groups don’t like it but hands off seems the real world compromise to me if you can operate the phone by voice not fingers.
 
Life ban for any conviction using them at the wheel.

nowadays that’s the equivalent of having your legs or hands chopped off by the Taliban in Afghanistan. No way of earning a living. It’s an option I suppose….
 
Who here has never, I mean *never* briefly looked at his cellphone while driving ?

From what I can observe these days, tons of people do this regularly. It's a plague.
Only for navigation directions, I have Apple CarPlay but have my iPhone on my dash because I don’t have to look away from the road for my nav… I’ve never touched my phone whilst driving, I’ve never eaten whilst driving, never changed a CD… I do drink from a can of pop or a bottle whilst on a long journey but only when I have a low workload. I don’t even like hands free phone calls, and I even as passengers in the car to pause whilst I’m negotiating a roundabout or junction.

I have been involved in a serious crash when a woman on her phone pulled out onto a dual carriageway on me… I had a fractured pelvis, fractured skull and two slipped discs from that, it absolutely reinforced my position on mobile phone use, or doing anything that detracts from my driving.

Incidentally, my father is a collision investigator, he’s worked on a few where mobile phone use was a major contributing factor, including one where a young woman was pancaked in her car when a truck driver failed to see stationary traffic in front of him… it wasn’t immediately obvious that her car was even there at first, it was buried between the car in front and the truck cab, it’s only as they towed the truck back that they could even tell what model of car it was. It was crushed to about a quarter of its original length. The truck driver was sending a text message.
 
It’s no different to talking to a passenger.
It’s very different to talking to a passenger, passengers can see what’s happening around you and usually shut up when you need to pay extra attention to busier phases of a journey, people on the phone can’t. It’s also easier to hear a passenger, you don’t have to concentrate as hard to hear them, phone lines can be pretty poor and that in itself can be distracting.
 
Got a little bluetooth thing for £30, plugs into the cigarette lighter socket, voice control's a bit flakey but better than death.
 
We've all got Bluetooth in our cars; some of us in our families have nav built in, others have it on their mobiles

But physically handling phones whilst driving is something we don't do and as 2 families (my side & my wifes side) are all ex-police; we stick to those roles.

We've even agreed that if a calls taken and we're driving and it's not urgent, it can wait

I have nav built into my 02 BMW Touring; I don't use it though as it's low down in the dash and it means me taking my eyes off the road; so my mobile is set up on a decent holder on the windscreen at eye level and I'll glance at that if necessary;, if the vocal instructions aren't direct enough etc

Not sure about the rest of you; but I don't like loud music in my car either, find it very distracting
 
Life ban for any conviction using them at the wheel.
Given that many smart motorways no longer have hard shoulders and rely on stranded vehicles making it to refuges, or lane closed overhead signs, it’s self-evident that more vehicles will be stationary in the left hand lane, which is also where irresponsible morons like this one spend their time. Draconian punishments don’t feel inappropriate here.
 
What I see is a surprising number of middle aged women, in quite new cars, handling their phones while driving through the town. These cars all have bluetooth - what on earth are these women doing?: - do they not know how to use their cars? or are they just too lazy/stupid/entitled to bother to learn how to get the bluetooth to work? Or turn off their bluetooth on the phone 'cos it affects the battery life?
 
I remember when I got my first mobile phone. I tried using it while driving on a track on a field. I was horrified how distracted I was. I have never used a phone handheld while driving since.

I usually don't have my phone on Bluetooth in car except when I do need to respond straight away. An example would be when driving to meet someone and plans may change or they need to be guided to the location. If the conversation gets in any way complicated I stop at the nearest safe place.
 
I recall when the law suddenly clamped down on mobile use when driving, some years ago. Strange to see absolutely no-one using their phones on the section of the M25 I used to drive on.
Sadly, once drivers realised there was almost no chance of being caught, phone use gradually increased.

Mick
 
nowadays that’s the equivalent of having your legs or hands chopped off by the Taliban in Afghanistan. No way of earning a living. It’s an option I suppose….
Any dick doing those at the wheel should not be allowed to have a job that requires driving.
Snowflake reactions like that piss me off.
 


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