Dilemma of the day

[addictfreak]

I'm another one who often drives around with my mobile on the passenger seat.

But asterix is probably correct in that its highly unlikely that the phone would have remained on the seat if it was there prior to impact.

 

[colly]

I think I read earlier today of a new driver who ran off the road and crushed an unfortunate woman against a wall and killed her.
The courts judgement was that she had been texting just before the accident and if I remember correctly she got 30 months in a young offenders institution.

 

[viper]

I think I read earlier today of a new driver who ran off the road and crushed an unfortunate woman against a wall and killed her.
The courts judgement was that she had been texting just before the accident and if I remember correctly she got 30 months in a young offenders institution.

You are correct i listened to that to.

 

[buggi]

no i don't think you should say anything. you are completely 2nd guessing a situation. if you didn't see her on the phone then you shouldn't report it. i often have my phone on the seat next to me, along with my purse (sometimes i don't take a bag) or, like someone has pointed out, she could have used it to call the emergency services. it could be the other persons fault and you could send the police in completely the wrong direction. even if she was on the phone, it could still be the other persons fault, or they could have contributed to it, they could have been speeding.

if you had definitely seen her using it, i would say report it, but as you admit you didn't then leave the police to do their job.

 

[Archie_tect]

As Mr Paul says, it's up to the police- they will check her phone records, anything that wasn't witnessed at the time of the crash is hearsay and probably unhelpful opinion. He can tell the police the phone was on the passenger seat if he chooses to, how it got there is again subjective hearsay, but in an ideal world he should have done so at the time, or within days after, if it was to be of any value.

 

[PaulB]

[QUOTE 1365470"]
Let's just be clear (again). The question was whether to tell the police that the phone was on the seat or not (in the same way that I told them that when I got there and she was still screaming her seat belt was done up, as it wasn't when the police arrived), not to tell them that I suspected that she was texting at the time of the crash.

Investigation is their job, not mine, and giving them one fact is not going to send them in the wrong direction. Any opinion I might have is just that, and would make absolutely no difference to the police. If it had been on the seat before the impact then it wouldn't have stayed there. It may have bounced off the airbag/door/roof onto the seat, or she may have put it down once the car had stopped.
[/quote]

And if my auntie had have had cojones, she may have been my uncle.

 

[Coco]

Best to keep your passenger door locked in that case, especially when driving through town. It's a common MO for thieves to target motorists stopped at traffic lights / junctions by snatching items from the passenger seats.

That sort of thing doesn't happen in Glasgow

To be honest I only do it in my own car and I never drive through town in it. Good advice though.

 

[Coco]

[QUOTE 1365470"]
... If it had been on the seat before the impact then it wouldn't have stayed there.
[/quote]

Don't most cars have (and I love this phrase) anti-submarine seats? Although I've never crashed it into another car, the seats in my Alfa comfortably keep all my junk in place on the rare occasions that I brake strongly. Or it could just be the Alfa has crap brakes

 

[colly]

You could look at it another way.

Suppose you turned up AFTER an accident and saw someone getting out of the drivers side of the car still carrying a can of Special Brew, stagger around and get into the back. Meanwhile a guy stood around doing nothing in particular gets into the driving seat.

You did not see the accident, you have no idea who the driver was, although it's a fair bet that Mr Special brew will have been, do you say nothing to the police?

After all you didn't see the accident. Any inferrence you might make is pure speculation.

 

[summerdays]

You could look at it another way.

Suppose you turned up AFTER an accident and saw someone getting out of the drivers side of the car still carrying a can of Special Brew, stagger around and get into the back. Meanwhile a guy stood around doing nothing in particular gets into the driving seat.

You did not see the accident, you have no idea who the driver was, although it's a fair bet that Mr Special brew will have been, do you say nothing to the police?

After all you didn't see the accident. Any inferrence you might make is pure speculation.

Yes I would tell the police ... they can investigate and look to see if there is any evidence to support that possibility. To not mention that I had seen two different people sitting in the front seat would leave the police minus a potential line of enquiry.

 

[Archie_tect]

This is getting more surreal by the minute!

 

[asterix]

Mr Paul, do you thonk that the phone was no longer on the seat when the police got there? When I say thonk, I of course, mean think.