Whatever….. the research is pretty soild and it’s empirical so if you want to burry your head in the sand that’s fine by me.

Fire me a link? Sounds like the truth being embelished to me… The other issue is all the research I’ve seen assumes the driver doesn’t adjust their behaviour (such as speed) when being tested (much like the warwick research that just measured response time and made an assumption based on a fixed speed).

I’m not out to disprove it, it’s just that in the interests of fairness I find most of the “tests” performed are critically flawed or not really representative of real life situations.

FWIW stopping at a green light isn’t changing anyones behavious, it’s just peeing them off. You can hope it makes them think but if you think it’s going to affect them for more than the rest of the day I think you’re the one burying your head, and risking worse.

I once got out of my car to check why someone was flashing me frantically, when I couldn’t see what the problem was (Assumed lights out) I walked back towards them to ask what was up looking perfectly amicable. The woman literally nearly ran me down trying to get away from me – she clipped my feet as I dived out the way.

And really, I don’t need to be an internet hero – I can more than handle myself and most situations thanks.

Geetee, earlier:

For me the car and weekends are mobile free times.

I do like the ‘Tesco Shuffle’ though, trying to use mobile and put the seatbelt on at the same time when leaving a parking space. Obviously a billisecond is too long to wait.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0LCmStIw9E&sns=em[/video]

Coffeeking – so not only do you not need to use your headlights but you can drive safely using a phone – you really are a wonder.

Its amazing how one person can be such an incredible driver that they know better than the DVLA and the researchers

A substantial body of research shows that using a hand-held or hands-free mobile phone while driving is a significant distraction, and substantially increases the risk of the driver crashing.

Drivers who use a mobile phone, whether hand-held or hands-free:

are much less aware of what’s happening on the road around them
fail to see road signs
fail to maintain proper lane position and steady speed
are more likely to ‘tailgate’ the vehicle in front
react more slowly, take longer to brake and longer to stop
are more likely to enter unsafe gaps in traffic
feel more stressed and frustrated.

They are also four times more likely to crash, injuring or killing themselves and other people.

Using a hands-free phone while driving does not significantly reduce the risks because the problems are caused mainly by the mental distraction and divided attention of taking part in a phone conversation at the same time as driving.

http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/info/workmobiles.pdf

http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/adviceandinformation/driving/mobilephoneswhiledriving/factsheet.aspx

Thanks TJ

Really Zokes there’s no need to be so rude and disparaging. I am not 6ft 4′, I’m only 6ft and I’m not a power lifter but I did spend 15 years training with a gentleman who also used to teach CQC Speztnas, FSB, SAS and Mossad so I learnt a few tricks. Mostly I learnt to be humble but confident.

I’m only 6ft

Short arse 😉

Oh dear…. from phones to part time secret agent in two tiny steps…

Good News! I’m off for a ride. Play nicely now 🙂

are much less aware of what’s happening on the road around them
fail to see road signs
fail to maintain proper lane position and steady speed
are more likely to ‘tailgate’ the vehicle in front
react more slowly, take longer to brake and longer to stop
are more likely to enter unsafe gaps in traffic
feel more stressed and frustrated.

Sounds like my mother in law. God knows what would happen if she answered the phone as well.

You’d get grief for doing something wrong?

I hate driving in traffic when you can see the person in the mirror behind is clearly texting and not concentrating. I have yet to get out of the car and remonstrate (following EL’s line of thought) but always leave a much bigger gap in front just in case I have to react.

If only these people realised that mobiles are not only dangerous when driving but also the tobacco of our generation….exists swiftly for a ride 😉

Crawling through tow centre traffic on Friday there was an Asian chap in a blinged 5 series with a phone to each ear!

Really Zokes there’s no need to be so rude and disparaging.

Sorry – I guess you probably use contacts instead of those glasses these days 😉

IMHO 3 points and a £60 fine are not enough of a consequence. I’d be looking at short-term bans of say a month for the first offence escalating through 3 and 6 before the final 12. I would also look at confiscation of the phone and number too, again for the same period as the ban.

I was behind a young girl who was texting while driving up the A605. She crossed over the white line several times and I beep my horn at one point as she was just not paying any attention. A bit further up the road she started playing with her phone again, a lorry was coming the other direction I started to slow up and honked my horn and the lorry driver slammed his brakes on honking his horn as she crossed the centre line and she just managed to swerve back over at the last minute just missing the lorry.

An ex work colleagues brother ended up in a wheel chair after a lorry hit him while he was on his bike. The lorry driver admitted in court he reached over for his mobile 🙁

The Swedish view seems correct…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/12/sweden_not_banning_mobiles_in_cars/

(crazy Swedes!)

I would also look at confiscation of the phone and number too, again for the same period as the ban.

I think this would be the better thing – that really will make people think. Loss of work’s number = loss of customers = loss of job. Loss of own number = loss of social life.

They would just go out and buy a new mobile.

They would just go out and buy a new mobile

And have to go through the palava of changing numbers. Don’t know about you but if I had to change my number there would be quite a bit of collateral work as a result.

Your no.s aren’t backed up?

Boils my pi$$ too. The amount of people on the phone seems to be getting worse and where they choose to do it gets stupider.

One of these days I am going to write down the reg and company of company vehicles and contact them. The law on not smoking in company vehicles seems to be forgotten now too.

I agree with handsfree being pretty much as bad as holding the phone. Talking to people in the car can be distracting but they are there with you which lowers the concentration needed as they can repeat/speak louder in response to noises around you, shut up if needed (hopefully) and are a lot clearer than someone on a speaker. I also agree with a lot of companies banning handsfree as well – just let people who REALLY need it use it and give them the best you can get. The reason they ban it is legal though – if the person kills someone when on the handsfree the bosses could get in trouble so they are really mainly protecting their own backs.

What really winds me up is people that pull away in car parks either on the phone or smoking and trying to navigate tight corners with a phone or cigarette in one hand. Why not finish what you are doing and then drive off? Idiots.

Shoot the people who drive whilst on their phone i say!

I just **** hate driving, I have about 100 calls a day and when I’m out and about in the van between sites it’s just constantly ringing, I get to site the spend 10 freeking minutes catching up before I even get out of the van. I don’t condone the use of phones in the car but when your job is split between driving and speaking to people it’s a nightmare. Life was so much easier before bloody mobile phones, used to get given a phone card from work and was asked to call in once or twice a week. Maybe I should just take my mums example and only switch the thing on when I want to call someone.

Isn’t it something like using your phone while driving is equivalent to being over drink drive limit a few times? In terms of concentration I believe.

So I question why it doesn’t carry the same penalty – maybe people would get it into their thick skulls it’s dangerous.

It’s not even one of those selfish acts that really, it doesn’t affect anyone else. If they veer onto the other side of the road and wipe out my family because they couldn’t wait 10 minutes to text their boyfriend, that’s a bit wrong.

Also a lot of people think it’s acceptable to text when in a queue of traffic. Why? For me this is when concentration is needed the most, probably, lots of stopping and starting…

I just **** hate driving, I have about 100 calls a day and when I’m out and about in the van between sites it’s just constantly ringing, I get to site the spend 10 freeking minutes catching up before I even get out of the van. I don’t condone the use of phones in the car but when your job is split between driving and speaking to people it’s a nightmare. Life was so much easier before bloody mobile phones, used to get given a phone card from work and was asked to call in once or twice a week. Maybe I should just take my mums example and only switch the thing on when I want to call someone.

Sorry but have you not heard of handsfree?

I once followed someone through a tunnel, could see she was texting as her head kept bobbing down. Came through other side of tunnel and there was a queue just as it split to three lanes. I pulled up and gave her some abuse through the window. She dropped the phone pretty sharpish then. Silly cow.

how is conversing on the phone different to chatting in the car/bickering kids/loud music?

Your no.s aren’t backed up?

Yours might be, but all your mates / colleagues / clients have your old number. You’d be paying for two contracts etc…

Far more pain than 60 quid and 3 points IMO

. Driving performance under the influence of alcohol was significantly worse than normal driving, yet better than driving while using a phone.

http://www.trl.co.uk/online_store/reports_publications/trl_reports/cat_road_user_safety/report_how_dangerous_is_driving_with_a_mobile_phone?_benchmarking_the_impairment_to_alcohol.htm

Isn’t it something like using your phone while driving is equivalent to being over drink drive limit a few times? In terms of concentration I believe

Wouldn’t know, never driven when over the limit – have you, or are you just guessing and/or making up facts?

Crawling through tow centre traffic on Friday there was an Asian chap in a blinged 5 series with a phone to each ear!

Drove past an Asian woman with a hands free kit the other day. She had the phone tucked into her headscarf.

I won’t use the phone when in the car, except to check a text (and therefore stop my phone bleeping all the time) if I’m stopped at traffic lights.

One of my friends (who perhaps isn’t the best driver anyway), doesn’t seem to care and will happily text while driving. If he does it when I’m in the car with him I tell him not too, and I make my objections known if he ever texts me while he’s driving (and it’s obvious he has done so – i.e. “I’ll be there in 15 minutes, I’m just getting off the motorway”).

To me whether or not other things are just as bad, and yes lots of things are, using a phone is illegal and the other things aren’t. I won’t do lots of the other things either because I like to consider myself reasonably safe but driving whilst using a phone is illegal and therefore whether or not you “can” do it shouldn’t make a difference.

Isn’t it something like using your phone while driving is equivalent to being over drink drive limit a few times? In terms of concentration I believe

No, it’s not.

It’s nothing like that.

then again

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1885775.stm

http://www.directline.com/about_us/news_27022009.htm

equivalent to being over drink drive limit a few times

Not according to either of those articles no..

One of my work colleagues is an appalling driver. speeds all the time and tailgates whilst using her phone.

The laws of averages caught up with her last week though when she got 6 points within 3 days. 47 in a 30 followed later by getting done for using her phone whilst speeding on the motorway.

Only the fact it wasn’t traffic that stopped her on the motorway let her escape without another speeding charge as well.

Strangely, as yet, her driving hasn’t changed. I predict a ban in the next couple of years.

Obviously 3 pts isn’t enough of a deterrent. Maybe 6 pts meaning drivers caught once would be one step away from a ban would work.

there’s some published stuff suggestng that hands-free is pretty much as dangerous as hand-held – supposedly it’s the concentration that’s lost rather than ability to physically control the car

tbh I’m still waiting for them to ban manual cars, its in the same vein. And I go back to the fact that there are an awful lot of drivers who really are just crap.

Different thing, it the concentration of holding a conversation with someone who is not with you

I’d be interested to hear how they suggest passengers, particularly children, come up score-wise on that test though – and there’s no way they’d ban that.

A distraction (especially kid) but apparently its the way we interact with people on the phone is very different to if they are in the car and the way the people on the other end of the phone talk to the driver is different.

It is concluded that driving behaviour is impaired more during a phone conversation than by having a blood alcohol level at the UK legal limit (80mg / 100ml).

Wouldn’t know, never driven when over the limit – have you, or are you just guessing and/or making up facts?

Neither, I just use my eyes and read something……

.
So did you deliberately Embelish what the study actually concluded then ?

Or did you go looking for it to back a statement you had already made, and that was the closest thing you could find maybe.

So did you deliberately Embelish what the study actually concluded then ?

Or did you go looking for it to back a statement you had already made, and that was the closest thing you could find maybe.

It doesn’t really matter does it. The executive summary clearly shows that driving performance is significantly imparied while trying to have a mobile phone conversation; in fact it’s worse than being at the legal limit.

Ah ok.

So not like being “a few times” over the legal limit then.

Glad we cleared that up..