Last Wednesday, I was riding to work when a BT Openreach truck merged onto the street right in front of me from my left – or, more accurately, almost right on top of me. I was forced into the parked cars to my right, and was quite shaken up.

Worse, the driver was on his phone, and although I had the sense that he was deliberately blanking me, it is possible that he just did not see me. That said, when I caught up to him at the junction up ahead, he was still on the phone, and was just looking both ways before turning.

Although I can not prove it, my instinct tells me that he had seen me and he was just being smart by pretending I wasn’t there.

In any case, it was probably the most dangerous thing that has happened to me on the road in quite some time, so when I got into the office, I wrote a complaint to Openreach with the thought that, if they didn’t respond, I would go to the police.

Well, I needn’t have worried, and it could well be that going to the company was a far better option. They emailed me back within 24 hours, then the regional manager phoned me to make sure I was alright, and to say that he was personally investigating.

Today I spoke to him and he was genuinely mad that this should have happened. He said that he is a cyclist himself, and asked if I had been wearing a camera. When I said that I had not been, but that maybe this was just a one-off, he replied that he would not tolerate any of his drivers talking on the phone while driving, or endangering lives whether it was a one-off or not.

In any case, I just have to say that BT Openreach have been phenomenal, and I am glad I got in touch with them. Two thumbs up!

BT and Openreach don’t allow handsfree operation in their vehicles while driving. I used to be pally with a senior project manager of theirs and phone use while driving is a sackable offence.
If you had pictures a driver would be unemployed tonight.

Network Rail have also banned the use of handsfree phones in their vehicles.

One unemployed driver is better than one dead cyclist/pedestrian.walker or child.

Handsfree calls can still be made by BT/Openreach drivers, and plenty vehicles have handsfree kits. The only change made was drivers were advised to consider if the situation was suitable for making handsfree calls.

Network Rail have not banned handsfree as such.
They’ve moved the onus to the driver to decide if they want to use handsfree or not, and also given them the option to get any handsfree kit removed/disabled.

“Handsfree calls can still be made by BT/Openreach drivers, and plenty vehicles have handsfree kits. The only change made was drivers were advised to consider if the situation was suitable for making handsfree calls.”

Really?

Good on them for chasing it up.

he was genuinely mad that this should have happened. He said that he is a cyclist himself

This, in my opinion, is where the real “safety in numbers” pay-off comes from.

If someone is a cyclist, or has family members or close friends who are cyclists, then they are much more likely to understand the issues and be suitably angered on your behalf.

I had a similar result with Virgin Media, although it took them a few days longer to respond.

They called me up to say that they knew who the driver was and that he would be going on a ‘remediation course’ at the drivers expense or face getting the sack.

TBH if you’re stupid enough to drive a works vehicle whilst blatantly on the phone you deserve everything coming to you (within reason).

Network Rail have not banned handsfree as such.
They’ve moved the onus to the driver to decide if they want to use handsfree or not, and also given them the option to get any handsfree kit removed/disabled.

Nope…

https://www.safety.networkrail.co.uk/Commitment-and-Rules/Lifesaving-Rules/Hands-free-no-longer-allowed

Edit: infact a recent training course showed a video of a chap reporting the fact he’d answered his phone on hands free as the cause of a near miss!