Life imprisonment for mobile phone death drivers.

fields5069

I should be amazed at some of the reactions on this thread. I should be. However it seems to be commonplace these days to reject the idea of trying to improve one aspect of road safety because there are so many other areas of concern that it's somehow "not fair". It all comes under the umbrella of driving without due care or attention, but the more concrete examples which can be included and provable the better I'd say.

ToneControl

prowla said:

thecolourbox said:

Foster said: 

thecolourbox said:

ThorpyFX said:

Was she lost on a non-lit dark country lane on her phone a minute before the accident? Why would being on the phone in that situation make sense to do?

Google maps?

They also work whilst stationery at the side of a road. I'd have thought that the check of phone records would also note the GPS position, if I use Waze in the passenger seat it tells me off in case I'm driving so it shouldn't be too hard to prove you'd stopped

I think the law applies even if you are stopped.

I cannot believe that any sane interpretation of the law would say that using a phone whilst stopped, 2 minutes before a crash makes you guilty of criminal reckless driving

I suspect the issue would be proving that you had stopped

I'm assuming that gadgets and car telemetrics will get better at telling us the true story 

However, triangulation using mobile phones has been available to the police for over 20 years, and they would be able to tell whether the call was being passed from one cell to another etc.
Checking emails with the handbrake on at the side of the road might be harder to prove, but to be honest, the law is about reckless driving: if you have an accident that is clearly caused by someone else, I doubt the police are going to try to frame you for reckless driving because you checked an email 45 minutes ago

Axe_meister

It will be interesting to see if the usage of apple car play or Android Auto will be logged as a phone interaction or is a touch of the touch screen taken as evidence?
At last Waze is now an Android Auto enabled app as it's a phone app I use all the time to get me safely and quickly from A to B (thank god the days of paper maps are over).
The whole phone as a Satnav, car audio center is a bit of a grey area.

ToneControl

Axe_meister said:

It will be interesting to see if the usage of apple car play or Android Auto will be logged as a phone interaction or is a touch of the touch screen taken as evidence?
At last Waze is now an Android Auto enabled app as it's a phone app I use all the time to get me safely and quickly from A to B (thank god the days of paper maps are over).
The whole phone as a Satnav, car audio center is a bit of a grey area.

yes, I am thinking of reverting to using my iphone as a satnav, mounted to the vents
I wonder what thought has gone into that scenario
The regs I read said keep it off the windscreen

Snap

tbh I find I am usign my phone in the car much less, even though I have complete hands free, voice control for all phone stuff.

I quite like opportunity to disconnect from it all for a bit

viz

ourmaninthenorth said:

While we're at it, I'd give life to: 

A) the tired behind the wheel.

the inexperienced

 

I love the way tFB converts B ) to !

ourmaninthenorth

viz said:

ourmaninthenorth said:

While we're at it, I'd give life to: 

A) the tired behind the wheel.

the inexperienced

 

I love the way tFB converts B ) to !

I know Viz, I nearly had to pull over to see if I could correct it....

fields5069

My car won't let me answer a text message while the car is moving, but it will let me put in a postcode, POI, etc. This should all be disabled IMO, although the sat nav does have voice control which is preferable but still requires brain cells which would be better put to use avoiding other vehicles.

ourmaninthenorth

I almost never answer my phones at home, ergo answering the buggers in a car is not something that's at the top of my list. 

I do however really need to stop doing jigsaws whilst driving.

randella

ourmaninthenorth said:

I do however really need to stop doing jigsaws whilst driving.

I would bet a small amount of money that someone has actually done this at some point.

Rocker

Why use maps on your mobile when a legal Satnav can be bought very cheaply?

Nobody condones drink driving so why condone the use of mobile phones while driving? If a driving ban for mobile phone usage while driving or imprisonment as described by the OP was the normal result of such behaviour, the practice would cease.

Blaendulais

Still though you can drive after 2 pints of lager.  FFS

JD50

About time, I have come close to being knocked over on the way to work a couple times & once recently while crossing at a zebra crossing with my daughter because some idiot is playing with their phone.

guitarfishbay

I do think there’s been a change recently. I see it less on the motorways, used to see someone texting and driving on the motorway every day but now every other day.

scrumhalf

ourmaninthenorth said:

I almost never answer my phones at home, ergo answering the buggers in a car is not something that's at the top of my list. 

I do however really need to stop doing jigsaws whilst driving.

If you're actually making them whilst driving that's another level of no-no.

ICBM

Blaendulais said:

Still though you can drive after 2 pints of lager.  FFS

Not in Scotland now - even a pint would be pushing it. Probably not in England either unless you're unusually large.

It's about time England was brought into line with the rest of Europe on this - 80mg is too high, not only because it's high enough that you can be significantly impaired even below it, but because it encourages the idea that one drink is OK.

xpia98jf

Rocker said:

If a driving ban for mobile phone usage while driving or imprisonment as described by the OP was the normal result of such behaviour, the practice would cease.

No it wouldn't because people who commit crimes don't think they are going to get caught. That's why capital punishment doesn't stop people from committing murder.

snakemanStoo

Blaendulais said:

Still though you can drive after 2 pints of lager.  FFS

I believe that on average 1 pint of lager is 2 units of alcohol, and that is the limit.

2 pint would be 4 units, therefore double the limit.

gavin_axecaster

^When the levels were introduced the average beer was about 3.5% ABV, so the standard was 5 units, or 2.5 pints.
Now the average abv of beer has increased most online guides say 2 pints of "regular strength" beer.

crunchman

thecolourbox said:

They also work whilst stationery at the side of a road. I'd have thought that the check of phone records would also note the GPS position, if I use Waze in the passenger seat it tells me off in case I'm driving so it shouldn't be too hard to prove you'd stopped

I don't leave my GPS on all the time though.  It eats battery.

Strictly speaking, they can still do you if you pull over unless you actually put the handbrake on and stop the engine.