Mobile phones

[Boris Bajic]

Using a mobile affects driving ability as much as being drunk. Drivers on mobiles aren't sorting out peace in the Middle East or developing strategies to defeat cancer, they are selfish, arrogant twits gossiping on the phone and not paying attention to the road. Well done.

I had a call on my mobile while driving the other day. Normally I'd have ignored it, but it was Ban-Ki Moon asking me to cancel a key speech at an oncology conference to meet him and discuss a last-ditch options package he's offering to Bashar Hafez al-Assad.

Selfish, I know. But what was I to do?

 

[glenn forger]

There was a crash recently in Streatham into a bus stop and im not even sure whether that was due to a mobile phone but a woman was killed in that incident due to an imbecile.Im woried about this society as standards seem to be slipping down the toilet,if they wern't already.

I think there had already been a collision in that case, I don't know if there was some sort of race or something. That poor woman was killed virtually outside her house.

 

[glenn forger]

Oh yeah:

A woman killed at a bus stop by a car which had earlier sped away from police in Norbury, has been named as Veronica Vanessa Chango-Alverez.
The 31-year-old was mowed down by an Audi A3 as she waited for a bus on Streatham High Road, at 5.30am on Saturday.
Minutes earlier a Volkswagen Passat car crashed into a tree in London Road at the junction with Ederline Avenue, leaving the driver, a 29-year-old man critically injured.
The Audi stopped at the scene of the incident, but made off when plain clothes police officers arrived.

http://www.streathamguardian.co.uk/...run_named_as_Veronica_Vanessa_Chango_Alverez/

Strange and horrible story.

 

[Cycling Dan]

Was that the sun shining in North Shields!

Looks like you are on the new bike too.

it was not sunny but was perfect cycling weather
also yes I do have a new bike, I was a good boy last year ha

 

[mr_cellophane]

Driving home on the M25 on Monday, I passed a woman doing just under 70 in the middle lane, a couple of car lengths behind an artic texting with both hands resting in the centre boss of the steering wheel.
Some days I think I should take the long way home and avoid that road all together.

 

[Boris Bajic]

When I was still commuting I saw it daily. A cyclist is ideally placed to look down into a car and see texting on the lap or a handheld chat on speaker.

I do not think it a huge deal, although the law is the law.

Until it was illegal I spoke on the 'phone while driving.

I've done so a couple of times since, although not recently.

I've taken calls on my bicycle too.

Let him who is without sin cast the first... OUCH!

 

[Matthew_T]

I see quite a lot of van drivers with laptops on the dashbaord. Is this legal?

 

[glenn forger]

I do not think it a huge deal

In America:

Nearly 1,000 deaths and 24,000 injuries included cell phone use as the major distraction.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Traffic Safety Facts: Distracted Driving 2009. Washington, DC: US Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, September 2010.

You are dangerously ignorant and naive.

 

[Boris Bajic]

I see quite a lot of van drivers with laptops on the dashbaord. Is this legal?

Yes, there's no law against seeing van drivers.

 

[addictfreak]

When I was still commuting I saw it daily. A cyclist is ideally placed to look down into a car and see texting on the lap or a handheld chat on speaker.

I do not think it a huge deal, although the law is the law.

Until it was illegal I spoke on the 'phone while driving.

I've done so a couple of times since, although not recently.

I've taken calls on my bicycle too.

Let him who is without sin cast the first... OUCH!

It's was a big deal for these people:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ed-talented-undergraduate-jailed-5-years.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1580408/Four-years-for-driver-who-killed-while-texting.html#

http://www.thisishullandeastriding....an-s-warning/story-17434113-detail/story.html


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9751567/Driver-who-killed-pedestrian-after-texting-escapes-jail.html


And I'm sure there are many more!

 

[glenn forger]

I see quite a lot of van drivers with laptops on the dashbaord. Is this legal?

No, of course not. Did you know in the whole of Suffolk and Norfolk there are now just eight Traffic Police on duty at any one time? Drivers use laptops and mobiles because they know they're unlikely to get caught, and even if they are the punishment is risible.

The punishment should be the same for the sub-human scum who get behind the wheel whilst pissed.

 

[Matthew_T]

The punishment should be the same for the sub-human scum who get behind the wheel whilst ****ed.

Well the effects are the same.

 

[Boris Bajic]

It's was a big deal for these people:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ed-talented-undergraduate-jailed-5-years.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1580408/Four-years-for-driver-who-killed-while-texting.html#

http://www.thisishullandeastriding....an-s-warning/story-17434113-detail/story.html


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9751567/Driver-who-killed-pedestrian-after-texting-escapes-jail.html


And I'm sure there are many more!

I quite understand. I dare say there are thousands. I wasn't saying it wasn't a big deal for those people or their families. I was saying it isn't a big deal for me. It is not.

Glenn Forger calls me ignorant and naive for taking this line, which is sometimes shorthand for disapproving when someone holds a view we disagree with.

I have three children who cycle and I have something of a vested interest in their continued enjoyment of their lives.

I would be terribly sad and probably terribly cross if any of them were to be bowled off a bicycle by a driver who was using a 'phone, shelling peanuts, changing a CD or picking his nose.

Nonetheless, the use of handheld mobile 'phones while driving per se is not a big deal for me. I see it often and it troubles me little. I stopped doing it myself only because of legislation. I still take calls on my bicycle, but do not make them or read or send SMS.

 

[glenn forger]

Glenn Forger calls me ignorant and naive for taking this line, which is sometimes shorthand for disapproving when someone holds a view we disagree with.

Not at all, I'm saying you're a naive simpleton for claiming thousands of deaths and serious injuries caused by drivers on mobiles isn't a "huge problem". Fell free to explain why you think I'm wrong.

 

[Boris Bajic]

Not at all, I'm saying you're a naive simpleton for claiming thousands of deaths and serious injuries caused by drivers on mobiles isn't a "huge problem". Fell free to explain why you think I'm wrong.

I do not think mobile 'phone use by drivers is a huge problem. You do. We differ on that point.

This may have more to do with the way you and I assess risk and rank hazards than with my being dagerously ignorant, naive or a simpleton (as you suggest I am).

I have not said you are wrong, nor have I implied it. I said that I do not think it a huge deal. I do not.

Just because I don't find something a huge deal doesn't mean I'm saying you're wrong about it. I wonder if you're seeing conflict where there is none.

Mobile 'phone use by drivers is not something I take terribly seriously. Nor is speeding within reason.

Some people take both terribly seriously. I do not. I think it's lovely that you do.