General Chat

You see the same thing when motorists ignore the orange and somethimes the red traffic lights. Time was everyone would stop at orange before red because that was the law if it was safe to do so. Nowadays if you stop safely on orange you are likely to have somebody ram you up the backside.

I think that a lot of the people you see walking with a mobile phone clamped to their ear actually have nobody on the other end.It is a way of feeling not quite so alone and vulnerable.

That policemen who are supposed to be upholders of the law are ignoring one is absolutely terrifying.I just hope this does not set a precedent or we are on the way to anarchy.

Apologies, if you think I misunderstood your opening post on this thread, but 2 of the people to whom I was referring were policemen, supposedly law abiding citizens who blatantly broke the law.
The other 20 could well have been otherwise law abiding citizens..yes ! ?

It is not the law I am particularly interested in. It is that otherwise law abiding people have decided it does not apply to them and break it blatantly.

I am sure they would be appalled if they saw somebody openly shoplifting or breaking into a neighbours house.

Whilst walking to my local shop, 10 mins away,none other than 12 people passed me using their mobile phone whilst driving, one was a neighbour, and a policeman20yards from his house !
On my return journey, we have flashing speed warnings in a 30 mile speed limit, again I counted in double figures the number of peeps that set off the warning.. one being a lone policeman in the big large van !
I am a driver and not anti police, but will be writing down reg No's in future!!
Better still will have my phone camera at the ready.
Miffed ..or what ! These incidents can kill innocent people.

I don't drive - but am regularly mown down by people attempting to walk whilst texting!!!
As a regular pedestrian, I see many people using their mobiles whilst driving through a busy town - I even saw a cyclist using a mobile once!
I'm the old bat that screeches or gesticulates at these morons on their mobiles.

I fully agree with what everyone has said.

Before retiring from the police I would issue a ticket to any one I saw using their mobile phone whilst driving regardless of what their excuse was. I obviously got the usual retort, "why don't you spend your time catching real criminals"

I was amazed at the programme on ITV1 at 9pm on Thursday which concentrated on drivers who use their mobile phones when driving. One report was about a young lady who was killed by another female driver who spent 20 minutes texting on her phone. As a result of her using her phone she did not see the car parked up due to a flat tyre. The sentence she received was nowhere near long enough. Another woman thinks there's nothing wrong in driving whilst she's got her dog on her lap or across her shoulders. The four drivers the programme concentrated on should have all been prosecuted for their manner of driving.

One peace of advice I was given when I was taught to drive by the police 30+ years ago was, treat your car as you would a loaded gun, it can be just as lethal and that is very true. No call or text message is that important to risk someones life.

Chris

Pleasant though it is to have the radio on in the car, the programme should be chosen before you start and left there unless you have a passenger able to change channels. We have never ever used a radio in the car, and have no mobile phone. I cant understand this need to be in constant communication these days. I have a neighbour who spends a night and a day visiting her daughter, yet the first thing she does when she gets home is spend another hour talking to her on the phone!

One of our pet hates too.
We followed a white van all the way from our village to
the next town, a good distance, and the driver was chatting on the phone....THE WHOLE WAY THERE....
He passed us and carried on up the road, still talking on the phone. My son phoned the number on the side of the van, only to be told that
the driver ... was the boss of the firm!!
What can you do if even the one in charge disobeys the law?
Deanna X

I have handsfree but don't use it or my mobile when travelling. It seems that more people are now texting on their knees as they travel as the phone can't be so easily seen there.....far more dangerous than holding it to your ear.

I agree with Badger about other equally distracting things. I see now in the paper this week that a survey suggests children travelling in a car are the biggest distraction of all, much more than mobiles or anything else. I would have to agree, having had a mother reverse out of her drive into my parked car. She told me it was the childrens' fault as they were squabbling!!! I have also had mothers pull up behind and nearly into the back of me because they had turned to look at the children in the back seat.

Just look in other vehicles you pass and see how many people are driving with 1 hand on the wheel anyway, the other draped over the window, on their knee, the other seat............

Isn't it just the general trend for no respect for anything Sharron. We live in a very 'me me' society. i.e. if I want to do something I will whether against the law or not. Especially as there are so few prosecutions of these laws.

On the M5 yesterday in extremely heavy traffic with a queues warning lit, (there had been a five car accident on the north bound, we were on the south bound). A young male driver overtook us going extremely fast and only noticed at the last minute that the traffic in front of him had stopped so had to slam on his brakes. Luckily he didn't slide or he would have hit the car next to him. (It was raining quite hard as well). The reason he didn't see? he was texting on his phone with his hands holding the wheel and the phone - hands at the top of the wheel together. No control at all of his car.

What I am really trying to discuss is my worry at the blatant disregard of a law because it doesn't suit what the individual wishes to do.

Had I followed one of the users and then mugged them for their mobile when they got out of the car,immediately getting into my car with it's clearly visible number plate and driving off ,the first thing they would do would be to take my number and call the police.

I worry that people are disregarding laws,very blatantly,that don't suit them.

Using a proper hands free is no more distracting than turning on a car radio,and listening to it while driving ,let's all show a little sense here ,i use mine to return a call saying "i will call you back as soon as i find a safe place to stop," but no one ,doctor or no should have a hand up to their ear with a phone in it
.Neither should a driver light up a cigarette on the move,but drivers do that as well.Fred.

I tried hands free when it became illegal to use the phone but found myself picking up the phone anyway so I just don't have the phone switched on in the car now.

For the first twenty-odd years I was driving there were no mobiles and we managed alright without them then.

Where are the traffic police? surely they should be out stopping these people, and any others acting like idiots. Most accidents are actually caused by stupid, careless or inattentive drivers, this being one of the major contributors.

Even hands free isn't totally safe as the driver can still be distracted from the road. My wife maintains that the only people who should be allowed to answer calls when on the move are Doctors on Call. Everyone else can wait until they have stopped and simply return the call.

It makes me so cross when i see mobiles being used without hands free. They are a danger to others and they dont seem to care. If they afford to run a mobile then they can afford to buy a hands free kit ,there's lots out there. Our previous car didnt have inbuilt hands free and OH cant use the in the ear type as he wears hearing aids, i bought him ,from one of the shopping channels, one of those clip on rear view mirror replacements which incorporate the bluetooth, and he was delighted with it .
So theres no excuse for breaking the law and more importantly to be putting others at risk.

Having seen yet another artic driver and the usual bevy of motorists chatting nonchalantly on their mobile phones yesterday I was thinking of what a dangerous precedent seems to be being set.

People are ignoring a very sensible law,set in place for the safety of everybody,because it does not suit them to obey it.

Does this mean I can ignore the law that prevents me dragging them out of their car and punching their lights out at the next set of lights because it suits me,or following them home and putting a brick through their window?

First step toward anarchy maybe?