It appears people think it is acceptable to use the phone whilst driving, and they think that way because there is simply no real enforcement of the law. We, as a Nation, could increase the fine to £1000 and loss of licence and it would still happen because they believe they aren’t doing anything wrong £ won’t get caught anyway.
Take a look at how many people are happy enough to post selfies etc clearly taken whilst driving onto social media, they happily incriminate themselves because to them, they aren’t doing anything wrong.

I think I get more angry now as I do more road miles and see so much more phone use. It is well proven that using a phone is a distraction , and coming up on a slow moving object ( cyclist ) whilst distracted is not a good thing.
I could generate thousands of pounds every day if I was a policeman, with an unmarked motorbike and some HD cameras
The DPD driver clearly texting on his mobile whilst driving up the M27 on wednesday in a 40T arctic. Idiot.
The guy in a Renault Kangoo who had his phone on the screen obscuring his face ( I could not see his left eye / cheek in my rear veiw mirror)

I think you are all correct ( first time on STW ) and we need points and fines that would be enough of a deterrant . 7 points and £350 , get caught twice and then you are in for a ban.

The last lady I spoke to, from my bike had her phone on her thigh , she implied she wasnt driving as she was in a traffic jam. I pointed out to her that if was OK and not illegal why was she keeping it out of sight of any passing police cars.

Every so often we hear a screech of brakes in the tractor, almost always someone on their phone getting a close up of the winch plate, no idea if anyone has actually hit it as we wouldn’t feel it.

Van driver on a phone shortened our MX-5 by a fair bit.

Mostly horn, or on the motorway, orbiting too, as they seem to be stuck in the middle lane.

I drive 100 miles a day commute and have for 20 years….I cannot believe the driving I see and the use of the mobile phones

I passed a car driving erratically overtook really cautiously had a look expecting to see driver on a phone, which he was filming his female passenger performing a blow j*b on him,….. 😳

Baron, that shop is just down the road from me, it’s an old pub with a massive car park at the back and the lazy so and so’s always park right outside.

I will keep a look out for the idiot in the Q3 and avoid her.

What can be done? Its endemic

Regular, routine enforcement. Of all traffic offences.

And a two week driving ban for 6 points. No excuses, no avoiding it. If you can’t get to work, tough, take some unpaid leave. Employer must keep job open for a first ban. Can’t take Auntie Mabel to her hospital appointment, tough. Pay for a taxi. Can’t take Jemima to pony club, tough, beg a lift from friends.

Make people realise how inconvenient it is to not have the use of their car and they might be more careful when they have it.

In the meantime, I find making the phone sign and shouting “Call me!” gets their attention and/or wrath!

I saw a guy in Oxford (on ring road) who was holding an iPad with both hands resting on the top of the wheel. He then put it down and threw a can out on the road (to offend as many STWers as possible).

Anyway must get back to concentrating on what’s happening in front on the M25 and why someone honked me just now

I passed a car driving erratically overtook really cautiously had a look expecting to see driver on a phone, which he was filming his female passenger performing a blow j*b on him,…..

should have got in front of him and then performed an emergency stop (justifiably if possible) – reminiscent of that scene in The World According To Garp…

Simmy – I drive past it every morning and evening on the way to and from work and the parking is shocking. Pure laziness and entitlement given the car park round the back. The paper shop on the other side opposite the station is just as bad in the morning.

Yeah, they are too lazy to park correctly. Think it’s their given right as most of them will be heading work on the industrial.

[Quote] was on the news recently that it’s worse in Scotland than the rest of the U.K., which wasn’t a surprise… [/quote] interesting, I’ve missed that story. Would be interesting to see the basis for the data – If it’s no of prosecutions it doesn’t necessarily equate to greater levels of offening, especially if they ignore the “what’s driving us” courses south of the border.

As has been said,the number of folk you see doing it is ridiculous and I’m amazed the police don’t dedicate unmarked resource just for this. It would pay for itself easily. It’s the one reason I’d buy a commuta-cam but I wouldn’t have time to edit and post em. That being said, my pal does and tweets stills to police Scotland with some success.

this is what happens if the driver behind doesnt pay attention

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-34969552 a nice little video, watch how far past all the stopped vehicles he travels, and somebody also died.

I see it frequently and the only conclusion I can draw is that the police, politicians and authorities just don’t really care, it’s a completely sensible law that’s almost completely unenforced…

As others have said dedicated detection units would probably pay for themselves, but as we’re living in austere times I reckon it would make sense to turn every dash cam and helmet cam owner into a phone **** detector:

Simple rules, let your camera run if you happen to capture actionable footage, no beeping or interaction with the driver should be attempted, no popping it on YouTube.
Email it directly to the rozzers, who tack an extra tenner onto the ****’s fine which goes direct to the person who caught them…

Once they know there’s incentivised “eyes everywhere” all but the stupidest drivers should clean up their act…. Right?

I like that idea cookeaa

People are shit. Next.

My old Windows Phone had a driving mode that could be activated by NFC when putting it into the Nokia car charger (did wireless charging too).

Would put music on bluetooth, open satnav and could be set to bump all calls to voicemail and give an automatic reply to texts saying “I’m driving right now, will get back to you later”

Phones all have acceleromoters/GPS now so the operating systems could be set to recognise driving conditions and turn certain connectivity off?

Hora – why is undertaking one of the two worst things to do to a driver? Surely tailgating is worse?

Its all down to the fact there’s very little proactive enforcement. This goes for all driving offences.

You know that law that they introduced for middle lane hogging? Who can say it’s actually made a difference…

A copper I know says, if he’s not going to something urgent, he always pulls over drivers he sees using a phone or crossing a double white line. They get told that he’s attended fatals caused by exactly that. The next bit is up to them.

The Courts could probably do a lot more to help. The driver in the above case was jailed for 2.5 years.

Research suggests its not the level of punishment that deters crime – its the chances of being caught. so to cut this sort of road crime then the chances of being caught need to be increased. thats more road policing. that then leads to daily wail headlines of ” the war on drivers” – that the issue here. No political will to reduce lawbreaking on the roads.

Audi driver playing with his phone drove into the back of me on the M25. Wasn’t making a call but fiddling with Google Maps, so no evidence (other than the fact that when I looked in the car his phone was on the passenger seat still turned on).

I see it frequently and the only conclusion I can draw is that the police, politicians and authorities just don’t really care, it’s a completely sensible law that’s almost completely unenforced…

it is treated the same way as speeding, if it is too proactively enforced a lot of organisations and people start making a lot of noise

what is needed is someone/ a group in the public eye enough to care enough to lead the change, the enforcement will be cost neutral and you will be able to make handheld phone use as acceptable as drink driving

That video of the lorry is why I will always sit in the outside lane if possible when stuck in traffic and always leave a good gap in front of me if I’m at the back of the queue.

I drive once a year for a particular job every June. I’m hyper-critical of myself, often tell myself off for being out of practice, but after fifteen minutes this time, had seen three people driving on their phones, and realised no one else was really driving well or paying much attention. Outside of driving in central London, it’s the first time I’ve felt I had to be as alert and paranoid as I would be on a bike.

**** the statistics, bad driving isn’t being measured by starved police forces.

Last week a guy on his phone rolled over a zebra crossing in front of me as I was walking over it.

Me: “[word that is a colloquial term for masturbator]”
Him: “**** you!” as he gunned it away.

I went into Bedford police station with my SD card of a black Mecedes overtaking me whilst cycling on a country road, brushing against me and at the same time forced an oncoming car to take evasive action and end up off roading in a ditch.

They were simply not interested, said offence had to be witnessed by a police officer, I argued didn’t stop Northampton police prosecuting the motorcyclist at a zillion MPH on his helmet cam though?

That is why I won’t bother buying a dash can any time soon and will keep sticking them up on my facebook page.

I think the police are worried about vigilantes running the show.

tjagain – Member

I like that idea cookeaa

i reckon you’d end up with a few thousand bounty-hunters, making a living out of it!

(fine by me fwiw)

I find open baffles on a ZZR1400 when filtering work quite well to get them off the phone even when their window is closed……

I think the police are worried about vigilantes running the show.

Vigilantes are people who carry out their own “justice”. Reporting them to the proper authorities so the correct course of action can be taken isn’t vigilantism.

I think the police are just worried about having to do more work. I know a senior officer told a fellow cyclist who reported a bad driver “yes, that’s bad, but if every time this happened it was reported and we prosecuted then we wouldn’t get anything else done”. Which doesn’t strike me as a reason to not deal with the incident that has been reported. They were basically scared that if they set a precedent by dealing with a reported crime effectively that other victims would start reporting ‘their’ crimes too.

There simply aren’t enough Police on duty. Drive past the motorway Police station at the Preston exit of the M6 and you’ll see twenty patrol cars, all parked and idle. Idiots know they have almost zero chance of being caught; I cycle with a couple of PCs and they tell me that on an average night Ribble Valley only has about 12 on duty and half of those go straight off to wasteful jobs like guarding prisoners in hospital. They tell me they know drink-driving is on the increase in rural areas but can’t do anything about it.

Which is why they need a real-time feed from their cameras to a central desk of judges just rubber stamping the offenses – little paperwork resulting – can’t argue with the video evidence.

Unmarked cars out on the motorway so no-one knows exactly how many are around.

I’d like a big electric banner on the rear window of my car that I can hit a button and it outputs pre-programmed messages:

ones that come to mind:
I’m undertaking you cos youre a class A kn0bby middle lane hogger, get left idjiot.
Get off yer bl00dy phone num nuts.

Shall I start a kick starter? We’ll need an app for controlling it of course, hahahaha

Like this one you mean?

damn it , somebody beat me to it.

ti_pin_man – Member

I’d like a big electric banner on the rear window of my car that I can hit a button and it outputs pre-programmed messages:

ones that come to mind:
I’m undertaking you cos youre a class A kn0bby middle lane hogger, get left idjiot.
Get off yer bl00dy phone num nuts.

In all seriousness though, a quick toot on the horn, then repeat. After the third toot they figure it out.

For a start I would give the police the right or rather the duty to take into their possession immediately any phone being used while someone is driving. Sim cards would then be destroyed and phones either sold and the money go back into enforcement or destroyed. Points on licence to be doubled for each subsequent offence.

It would be good to see phone records checked at any accident that the police are called to, in the same way that drivers can be breathalysed.

But the nature of modern smartphones means that just wouldn’t be practical or conclusive.

I would add a set of signs to the cars the perps, as well as points.
A bit like the health warnings on fags, but advertising the misdemeanours they have been done for… And the consequences. A couple of months of a big set of signs saying ‘This idiot used a phone when driving’ or ‘Numb nuts here sped outside a school’s etc…

For a start I would give the police the right or rather the duty to take into their possession immediately any phone being used while someone is driving. Sim cards would then be destroyed and phones either sold and the money go back into enforcement or destroyed. Points on licence to be doubled for each subsequent offence.

Define ‘being used’. Do you mean as an actual phone? My phone frequently sits on a magnetic mount on the top of the dash, usually being used as a music source, but is also there as my satnav should I need one, so do you count satnav use as well, because it’s in use on a phone?
And a recent job ferrying cars around has meant needing to take calls from my team leader regarding whereabouts and eta’s, which I answer using a cheap Jabra headset, otherwise I just don’t take calls, or make calls in my car.

I’d rather people hogged the middle lane all day than texted whilst driving, tbh.