BS: Drivers using mobile phones

Subject: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 04:44 AM

I am bloody sick of meeting drivers with a mobile phone stuck to their ear, trying to change gear unable to use indicators and not giving a toss about other road users.

Met a lady this morning, came around a corner towards me, crossed white line, laughing into phone perched on her left shoulder. It was a big four by four with about five kids in the back.

If the police had caught her it's still only a £30.00 fine. A guy who killed an 11 year old girl a while back while driving and using a phone was fined £250.00. I feel her life was worth more.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: nutty
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 04:49 AM

I recently had a close encpunter with a 'white van man' - mobile in one hand - cigarette in the other. (no damage fortunately)

My passenger rang his employer to complain and was severely verbally abused.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Mr Red
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 04:56 AM

Flash yer lights and put up a sign to the effect "Police Check Ahead"
you would have to drive with it on the passenger seat and use it rather a lot. And it would be a hazzard akin to talking on the phone and driving but.....

I'll get me coat

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 05:51 AM

Why can't people learn to hold them ear to shoulder?

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: mandotim
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 05:55 AM

Hands free kits, using bluetooth or a speaker cradle now cost between £10 and £25. No excuse.
Tim

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 06:27 AM

I can't see why they don't just introduce a lifetime driving ban for anyone caught using a mobile while driving.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Divis Sweeney
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 06:40 AM

What gets me is what is so important that a lot of people either driving or walking up the street need to be making or receiving phone calls.

Maybe I am old school, but I can get through life the best making and receiving calls from my own home. Yes I have a mobile, but if I want to call someone for an everyday conversation I can do it from home.

I was on a busy train from Belfast a few weeks ago and you couldn't help but over hear peoples conversations as they were inches from me. Never heard so much crap, nothing life threating or urgent or put the tea on I am 30 minutes from home.

Do you ever notice the look you get when you hit the horn at one of these guys talking and driving. Oh to be so important, a legend in their own lunchtime.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 06:58 AM

Divis, I've only once overheard an appropriate conversation on a mobile in public. A sharp, almost tropical rainstorm hit & a bloke on the bus called home to be collected. The bus shelter would not have been much shelter as it was full of folks trying to stay dry till their buses arrived! Fortunately the rain had stopped by the time I got off as I didn't have an umbrella.

I don't own a mobile & will never have one, as like you I see no reason to discuss my business with the world. Some years back when my sister went overseas she gave me a phone card. Several years later I gave it to a colleague as it was almost out of date & I'd only made one call (to my doctor to say I was running late).

Dunno whether they are legends, unselfconscious or exhibitionists!

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 07:09 AM

Ah Divis - a colleague of mine has gone one better. He spend his mornings researching stuff on his internet connection at home, and then comes to work to call the appropriate store to check its availability ON THE WORK PHONE! This is despite having his own landline at home and a mobile phone.... One day someone will catch up with him.....



if I only knew the right person to contact..!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: GUEST,Geoff the Duck
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 07:23 AM

But Liz - Is said person ina ny danger of fatally crashing your office?
Quack!!!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Midchuck
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 07:27 AM

I can't see why they don't just introduce a lifetime driving ban for anyone caught using a mobile while driving.

I strongly disagree.

Gut shot, left in a roadside ditch in the sun to bleed out slowly....

(I am a little psychotic on the subject because I have to cross the main road through our village to get my mail and morning paper. I use a marked cross walk. I nearly get hit by someone who fails to notice me, on the average once every ten days or two week. Maybe eight out of ten times that happens, the driver is talking on a cell phone.)

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 07:36 AM

Depends on your definition of crash.... he certainly impedes the progress of many and there could be a fatality - his if I ever get my hands round his throat!


I'm also of the 'hang the bastards' school of thought when carved up, blocked or sideswiped by drivers on phones.... I live near a school which has a crossing patrol. Helen, the lollipop lady has been clipped twice this year by drivers on phones, dropping off their own children.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: GUEST,Janine
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 08:10 AM

Using a mobile phone while driving was made a separate offence a while ago following a horrible, tragic accident. There was already an offence on the books about 'not being in full control of a vehicle' so from that point of view it seemed unnecessary to pass a new law. It seems to have had no effect anyway as I seem to see more and more drivers with phones glued to their ears. Is anything that important that they can't stop?
Janine

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 08:17 AM

I believe the 'tragic accident' referred to above was denied by the driver, until the police produced a recording of the call, which concluded with the driver shouting 'I've hit something' and then ringing off.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: terrier
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 08:27 AM

A few days ago, I was talking to a friend (a retired police officer) who was reminiscing about the old days when he was a motorcycle cop.
In those days, the onboard communication was the old fasioned telephone handset ( remember those big black heavy ones ) and he said many's the time he would be tailing a speeding motorist whilst holding the handset to his ear. One hand on the phone and the other hand to control the bike !!!
How times have changed.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Becca72
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 08:48 AM

I had one eye on the girl behind me for my entire commute this morning, because she was screaming into her cell phone and smoking at the same time, reaching across her body to flick ashes out the car window. There were a couple of times that you could tell she forgot she was even in the car.

I have a cell phone and I carry it with me all the time. I also take a lot of road trips and have it in case something happens with the car or whatnot. If I'm in a public place and someone calls me, I tell them I'll call them back when I'm finished what I'm doing. I don't generally talk at all while driving, but if I have to I do have a hands free device for just such a purpose. I have considered getting in touch with my local government about passing a law that requires people to use hands free devices at the very least. Right now I don't know that there's any such thing on the books in my area.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Big Mick
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 08:55 AM

New Jersey has a ban on cellphones when driving unless one is using handsfree. That is misleading as well. The reports I have seen indicate that handsfree has only a marginal effect on safety. It has to do with concentrating on the road. I would like to see it a class one offense with loss of driving privileges for any repeats. In my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan about a year ago, a young woman driving a Hummer H3 and talking on a cell phone drove through a red light and killed a kid and injured his Mother.

I use a bluetooth when I am driving, but I try and not be on the phone at all when driving.

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Wesley S
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 09:06 AM

What amazes me is that often the driver with the cell phone attached to his ear has a passenger sitting there doing squat. Why can't the passenger make the call and leave the drivers hands free to drive?

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Midchuck
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 09:24 AM

Wesley, in this case I think the feminine pronoun is more appropriate. I see a lot of males doing this, but many more females.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 09:28 AM

When my cell goes off (I can't say it "rings" when it both vibrates and plays Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyrie") I do something totally out of character: I pull over, stop and answer the thing. Ditto if I do have to make a call when I'm driving.

I've even pulled onto the shoulder of the highway.

I have a cell phone because I Am The Boss and the staff does have to contact me at times.

And yes, I also have hands-free set-ups for it.

But I prefer not to use it at all when I'm driving. A) It's dangerous and B) I actually use driving time to think!! I might not even have the radio on or music in the player!!

One of the greatest environmental disaster, in my opinion, is the demise of silence.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Peace
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 09:32 AM

I think cell phones are really good to have in cars in the event of. However, I admit to a longing that may seem a bit over the top. When I see people driving 120 km/hr and using one hand to help cradle the phone to their ears, the urge comes upon me to take the phone from their hands and shove it up their collective arses. Usually, however, I figure that sooner or later some first responders will be cutting them out of a crash. (At one 'accident' scene, I bit my tongue real hard. The guy had his phone and it was still clutched in his hand. He'd overturned the vehicle--yep, all by himself--and I was aching to ask if he was talking with Suzie Galore at a 900 number. However . . . .) Few calls can't wait until people have the opportunity to pull over. IMNSHO. Done too many calls for idiots like that.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 09:33 AM

I travel all over the place with work and have a company mobile. I find it very easy - While driving the phone is switched off. After 2 hours of driving I take a break and check for messages while I have a cup of tea. Kills two birds with one stone:-) If anything happens while I am driving it can wait two hours till I pick up the messages.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Big Mick
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 09:56 AM

Peter Midchuck, I suspect you should rightfully prepare to catch almighty hell. Gender has nothing to do with this. I spend a lot of time in a car, and I can tell you this is equally a male/female problem.

Now let me move over here out of the shrapnel zone. LOL

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 11:01 AM

There are a 'few' laws like Mick refers to, but I suspect that they are relatively hard to pass because the idiots who MAKE laws are confirmed cell/mobile users!.

   I'd love to see a universal law that you MUST have a hands-free device or pull over to the side!

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Midchuck
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 11:01 AM

I pedestrian a lot. When you pedestrian, you get a better chance to observe the drivers as the cars go by - especially the ones that barely miss you. I stick to my position - there are significantly more females talking while driving. Observed fact, not prejudice.

If the women's movement won't tolerate generalizations about differences in male/female behavior, if they're negative to women, even if they're based on personal observation, then...well, anything I could say will only make things worse, so you can guess at it.

Peter

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Big Mick
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 11:17 AM

Peter, the observations of one pedestrian in a small town in the Northeast based on observations made at the same time every day, are hardly a generalization one can rely on. I think I would probably put more faith in observations, such as these, that are based on appropriate data.

Here is what they had to say:

- Compared to non-users, drivers who were using their cell phone at the time of their crash were more likely to be male, under the age of 55, and driving a sport utility vehicle. The vast majority were at least partially responsible for their crash, based on information noted under the "driver violation" variable of the crash report form.

This is but one of the conclusions, and I have linked to the whole 66 page study, but it seems to blow a hole in your observation. I am sure I could find more.

No offense intended but I find these types of generalizations troubling.

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Scoville
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 11:26 AM

A client of one of my old employers ran her SUV into the back end of a stopped (stopped in traffic) eighteen-wheeler while she was on the cell phone and killed one of her seven-year-old twin daughters. Not that she couldn't have been distracted by something else, but I'll bet she never talks on the phone while driving again. I don't know how I would live with that.

*****

My mother's fantasy is that whenever she sees someone talking, applying makeup, etc. while driving, or just driving like a jackass, she could teleport them back to their own driveway. Nobody would get hurt and the more asinine they were, the longer it would take them to get anywhere.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Peace
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 11:28 AM

Men shaving. I love that one. (I figure it would be a real difficult thing to do if ya drive a standard. How would you keep yer foot near the clutch?"

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 11:46 AM

You shave with your feet????

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Peace
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 11:54 AM

NO. I shave my legs.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Becca72
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 11:54 AM

Seems like women shaving would be more of a problem with keeping one's foot near the clutch...

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 11:55 AM

I find the best way to avoid being run over while crossing the road (in England) is to stop, look right, look left, look right again, and if it is safe to do so, cross the road while listening. You get a feeling even before you see the phone about the way some people drive that tells you relying on a traffic signal to stop them is a bad lifestyle choice.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Wolfgang
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 12:20 PM

There are many ways to drive with reduced attention (BTW, that's n adverse side effect of the modern very helpful cars), phoning while driving is just one. One German driver recently was found being online with her laptop on her lap.

Why do you only talk about cars and mobiles? Is it not forbidden on bicycles as well in your countries? I'm living in a bicycle town and I get mad at the phoning bicycle riders changing direction without indicating it. I then overtake them and ask very politely if the next time they could bother to indicate a change of direction with the hand.

The looks I get then or the words I hear indicate that this is a totally silly damand. It's only more fun to ask the same question of a cyclist with an open umbrella during heavy rain.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 12:20 PM

There have been studies(I'll source them when I can) that have demonstrated that driving while taliing on a cell phone, hands free or not, is as dangerous or more so than driving legally drunk.

IF anyone cared, cars would be made to contain a farady cage that would block ALL cell phone signals....

Same with movie theatres and resturuants and schools and libraries. (There is a nano-paint that's being or has been developed that can be 'wired' to block cell phone reception with the flip of a switch)

If you want to talk on a cell phone, go the FK outside with the smokers...

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Mooh
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 12:27 PM

I often see folks pull out of the bank parking lot across the street with cell phone and face grafted together. This when, just moments before, they were parked and could have made the call safely. What fucking sense does that make?

Geez.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: mandotim
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 12:42 PM

On the subject of distractions and those who say even hands-free is 'dangerous'; I'm not sure what the difference is between answering a call on a hands free earpiece and (say) talking to a passenger, dealing with a lighted object close to your face, soothing fractious children/dogs/spouses, looking briefly at a map, changing the station on the radio, adjusting the seat position, turning the heater up or down...so lets see...we need laws that ensure
-No form of conversation between driver and passengers
-no children or pets to be carried in vehicles unless bound and gagged
-No smoking in cars
-Compulsory satnav
-radios with only a single station
-fixed seating
-no heaters or aircon

Tricky to enforce, don't you think? Life has risks, try it, you might enjoy it.
Tim

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 01:01 PM

Not true at all, but from a very early age we're taught to especaiily pay close attention to conversations we're having on the phone... We have to... We're missing a LOT of what makes human discourse possible.... facial expressions, body language... that kind of stuff (The same kind of stuff that's missing here)

So when we're on the phone, we attempt to block everything eles out so we can pay attention... It's not the same as having a conversation with someone who's in the car with you... Or the radio (Which is VERY easily push to the back of out attention 'stove' when we need to)

With a cell phone, it's the DRIVING that gets pushed back.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Midchuck
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 01:05 PM

Mick, you're claiming I should believe a statistical study someone published instead of my own firsthand observations. I will sit firmly on my first impulse to make a suitably rude reply, and merely say I refuse to do so.

Tim, you're turning a shades-of-gray situation into a black-and-white one. You're perfectly right, you can't have cars at all without some degree of risk. But you have to draw a arbitary line somewhere. It's just like speed limits. The lower they are, the fewer accidents you get (as a general proposition, although I think low speed limits have some tendency to cause people to fail to pay attention because the driving is boring). So do you lower them to zero and have no accidents, or to you let everyone drive whatever speed they want, and have a real mess? It's a balancing thing.

Peter

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 01:13 PM

" my own firsthand observations"
Every cop worth his salt will tell you that Eye Witness Testimony is the WORST form of 'evidence'... Humans eyes are too easy to fool, and our memories are too easily blurred...

I'll believe an empirical study over anecdotal evidence nearly every single time

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Big Mick
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 01:16 PM

Peter, take a breath. As a father of three daughters and the spouse of a phenomenal person who is a woman, I am also choking back suitable rude replies. While not meaning to attack you, I am saying that generalizations such as yours serve no purpose and are factually incorrect. That wasn't just a study "someone published". It was commissioned by the State of North Carolina to get to the bottom of the issue. It was based on data collected and analyzed by suitably qualified people, and it was based on a statistically appropriate cross section. But I believe that I see a **twinkle** in your cyber eye as you "take the piss" as our Brit friends are fond of saying. Would you do me a favor? At some point in the future I am sure you will meet my wife at a gathering somewhere, perhaps even one of more of my daughters. Would you do me thfe kindness of repeating your assertion in their presence? But give me a little warning, OK? I just want to make sure I have a good seat out of the line of fire? ***LOL***

It is true, Tim, that we can go overboard on reg's. Walking down the street can be dangerous. But when it can be shown that an action increases danger for the average citizen outside the norm's, then appropriate legislative action should be taken.

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 01:16 PM

quote from somewhere:

"I was driving along the other day, when I saw a woman looking into the rear view mirror, trying to apply makeup ...startled me so badly I almost dropped my cell phone into my bowl of soup."

I had a woman using a phone 'almost' hit me awhile back as she veered into my lane as we were turning out of an access road, as she simply couldn't steer the curve with one hand.
Even if one NEVER talked while driving, the cell phone would so much handier than a few short years ago when we had to look for a pay phone and find some change! Pull OVER...even to answer! Phones have a 'missed call' feature....you can call back!

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Wesley S
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 01:23 PM

But have you noticed that most people hate to miss any kind of a phone call? In the car or at home it doesn't matter. I'm getting a lot better at just letting the phone ring if I'm busy. That's why message machines were invented.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 01:33 PM

I have ZERO problem not answering the phone.... that's what Call Display is for.... If I want to talk to you at that moment, I'll pick up... if I don't you can leave a message.... If you don't, then it couldn't have been that important

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 01:34 PM

"I use a marked cross walk. I nearly get hit by someone who fails to notice me, on the average once every ten days or two week. Maybe eight out of ten times that happens, the driver is talking on a cell phone."

Peter, I sympathize. I've also thought of a way to deal with such a situation. When I am about to cross a busy road, I move my arms and legs about, as if exercising. People are used to that, so I don't feel stupid about it. Nonetheless, the flailing arms and legs tend to attract the notice of drivers.

At night, I carry a white handle bag and swing it jauntily to and fro. It catches headlights nicely.
-------
I agree that people should not drive and use cell phones. A good friend of mine has a basketball coach who lost a baby because a driver using a cell phone ran into her car.

Another story: I used to work in a fabric store. One day I noticed a young woman who was trying to select buttons. She had a little baby in a stroller and a toddler who kept trying to run away from her. As she scanned the racks of buttons (it's so hard to find the perfect button), her cell phone rang. It was her husband, wanting this, that and the other.

Young mothers, you have enough to do - don't let them stick you with a cell phone so you can make an even better servant!

Another thing I noticed often was mothers who tried to use a cell phone to supervise children who were clearly too young to be left at home. Lazy, irresponsible behavior!

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 01:34 PM

If cyclists do something stupid or selfish (and some do), the person who stands to get killed or injured mostly is going to be themselves, that's the difference.

As for men and women using mobiles while driving so far as I can see men are at least as likely as women to do this.

I think men and women tend to use the phone differently.   In general men are more likely to use it for a few seconds in an instrumental way, women are more likely to use it for extended conversations. I suspect that this would actually mean that men are more likely to use it while driving - "I'll be late", "Has the stuff arrived" so forth. Action man ganes, making like that pillockl in "24".   Extended conversations fit in much better with walking along.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Big Mick
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 01:36 PM

Sources for your assertions, please, Kevin. Or is it just your opinion, with regard to the differences between men and women?

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 01:41 PM

Dunno why the phone should take so much precedence. If you think about it, it happens in non-mobile situations as well. How many times have you been into a reception area only to have your conversation interupted by the receptionist you were talking to answering the phone? It seems to happen a lot around here and it gets right on my nerves. Why should a phone call have priority over a face to face conversation? More to the point - what can we do about it? Should I shout down the phone ''scuse me I was here first!' or some such?

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Midchuck
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 01:47 PM

Mick, I'll carry a notepad and write down each time I see a driver using a handheld while driving, if it'll help.

"There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics." Was that Mark Twain? I forget.

Peter.

PS: I am not asserting that women are more dangerous drivers in general. I just that think that when women do stupid things while driving, it tends to be due to their overestimating their ability to multitask, whereas when men do them, it's simple testosterone poisoning.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Peace
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 01:48 PM

It was Mark Twain.

Subject: RE: BS: Drivers using mobile phones
From: Peace
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 01:53 PM

Women seem to crash their vehicles more than men, but more men die in crashes. It seems to indicate that women drive a bit more slowly, or conversely, men drive faster.