Drivers using mobile phones

not_the_dj

CabbageCat said:

Jalapeno said:

Is Hands-Free voice calling really any more distracting than chatting with a passenger ?

A passenger is aware of the situation you're in, so they know when to shut up, and it'll be obvious to them why you've stopped mid chat to concentrate. Someone on the other end of the phone won't, so they'll carry on the conversation if you go quiet, which can easily draw you back into the conversation and distract you.

jonnyburgo

I see it all whilst cycling, about a week ago we had heavy frost, a guy sat the lights had cleared a face-sized patch on his windscreen,, the rest of it was totally opaque. What a dickhead. 

Also loads of cyclist listen to music on headphones whilst cyclng which is well dangerous too. The other day I saw my mate cycling the same route as me to work, I shouted him but no response, I eventually caught u with him and discovered he was blasting out music on his headphones. I was surprised as he is an intelligent chap and a "proper" cyclist who does 1000's of bike miles a year.

chillidoggy

I think any activity whilst driving has a potential danger attached to it, be that phoning, texting, smoking, eating, drinking and even listening to music. These days I tend not to listen to the radio, or any music in the car unless it's the news. Years ago I couldn't drive without music, and it'd be loud, too, but now I find it distracting. But then I'm an old fart.

beed84

jonnyburgo said:

Also loads of cyclist listen to music on headphones whilst cyclng which is well dangerous too. The other day I saw my mate cycling the same route as me to work, I shouted him but no response, I eventually caught u with him and discovered he was blasting out music on his headphones. I was surprised as he is an intelligent chap and a "proper" cyclist who does 1000's of bike miles a year.

I notice this too and I simply cannot comprehend it. Why in the name of God would anyone be prepared to distract one of their senses whilst riding on busy roads? Yeah, I'm sure it feels great listening to favourites tunes whilst peddling like mad, but surely it'd be preferable to hear where exactly the traffic is and coming from.

Axe_meister

I've seen truck drivers watching porn whilst driving

Phil_aka_Pip

Axe_meister said:

I've seen truck drivers watching porn whilst driving

good job the sides of their cabs are opaque then

lloyd

Axe_meister said:

I've seen truck drivers, watching porn whilst driving

You watch truck driver porn while driving??!!!

The importance of grammar!

xSkarloey

Emp_Fab said:

Yet, more and more drivers are taking that gamble.  There really needs to be a public service TV ad campaign to highlight the very real potential consequences of the seemingly trivial act of texting whilst driving.

This, something along the lines of the major blitz on drink driving they had going back 20+ odd years ago. 

The problem with this ban on mobile use is that it's got to be self-policing to have the greatest effect. 

With the best will in the world, the actual Police just can't be everywhere at the right time to catch the worst miscreants. 

imalone

beed84 said:

jonnyburgo said:

Also loads of cyclist listen to music on headphones whilst cyclng which is well dangerous too. The other day I saw my mate cycling the same route as me to work, I shouted him but no response, I eventually caught u with him and discovered he was blasting out music on his headphones. I was surprised as he is an intelligent chap and a "proper" cyclist who does 1000's of bike miles a year.

I notice this too and I simply cannot comprehend it. Why in the name of God would anyone be prepared to distract one of their senses whilst riding on busy roads? Yeah, I'm sure it feels great listening to favourites tunes whilst peddling like mad, but surely it'd be preferable to hear where exactly the traffic is and coming from.

While I don't listen to music while cycling any more I've never quite understood this "distract one of your senses" business. People in cars are listening to music or the radio too, and I've never been able to have headphones at a safe (non-hearing damaging level) without being able to hear what's going on around me. Actually, that's one of a few reasons I stopped, just couldn't hear (also why I don't try to listen to music on the tube, where there's less risk of getting run over), and headphones falling out, which is not particularly dangerous as helmet straps stop them falling into the way of anything, but is pretty annoying.

xmrchi

I hate it I hate it I hate it!!!.

I ride a motirbike every days and have had 2 near misses due to drivers texting when they drive, one had the audacity to give me the v's when he drifted into my lane whilst on the phone!, His wing mirror (13 plate jag no lie) lasted about 2 seconds after that, they are surprising easy to smash with an armoured glove. 

stimpsonslostson

I see it regularly on my (cycle) commute, I'd guess two or three a day. From people talking with the phone held to their ear to texting away... that said, I've also seen LOTS get stopped by the cops for it. 

my "favourite" was seeing a guy holding his iPad against the steering wheel & watching a movie whilst driving through a busy part of town! It astonishes me what folk do whilst behind the wheel. 

Apparently some new models of car can be set to automatically turn your phone to silent mode when paired with the bluetooth stereo, meaning that if you want satnav/music through the stereo the phone won't distract you in any other way. 

Col_Decker

Axe_meister said:

I've seen truck drivers watching porn whilst driving

like this ... http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2014/06/05/familys-heartache-over-shropshire-porn-crash-truckers-jail-term/

Alnico

I'm sure some here know what a tachograph is but for those that don't, i'll explain...........

They used to use paper discs that record working hours, speed, distance, mode of work (Driving/Rest/Other work/POA (Period of Availablity)).

Since 2007 (ish) we have had digital tacho's and they became mandatory on all new commercial vehicles from roughly that year and we all must carry a digital tacho card with a 'Smart' chip on it which when inserted into the machine in dash, records all the data onto the chip and the card hold 99 days of info.

We are bound bound law to download this data at our transport office within 28 days of any shift we've worked however almost every company simply makes us download the data at the end of each week, therefore never getting close to the legal deadline and in fact some operators will insist you download data from your card at the end of every shift. This is mainly because someone will also analyse the data before they upload it directly to the Ministry of Transport.

So this card not only records all your speeds, working mode etc, but it also records exactly (accurate to within 60 seconds) what you did with the vehicle at any given time throughout the day. What's most important here is that although you have downloaded your info to the transport office, it's only copied it, the data remains on your card for 99 days and then overwrites one day at a time.

ANY lorry driver could be arrested on the spot for a 'Historical' offence at any time because as has been pointed out, phone records are easy for the police to get hold of and if the phone records show a text sent at, lets say 13:00 hrs but the vehicle had been travelling at a constant 56mph between 12:30 and 14:30, there is nothing the driver can say, he's nicked. It's really very easy because the card inserts into a reader which feeds a laptop and the data is VERY easy to read.

VOSA (Vehicle Operator Services Agency) are the ones you see on the side of the motorway with Black and Yellow squares down the side and orange lights on top - NOT the Wombles who close the road in their landrovers, VOSA drive predominantly People carriers and to all intent and purpose, they are the 'Lorry Police'. Drivers are pulled over regularly and checked by them. They check the vehicle for defects, they check the tacho for infringements (Excessive speed, Excessive working hours, Correct amount of break time taken etc).

The only time they will check the tacho against phone records is when there is an accident however there is another way which doesn't require the legal side of acquiring records. Every phone has a log which 99% of people don't ever delete, especially not as they are being guided into a check site and trying to 'Land' a lorry, decelerating from 56mph.

It's a simple thing that they simply don't do - if a driver has a phone that is not attached to the dashboard permanently, it should be temporarily seized by the Police or VOSA and checked against the tacho. The phone logs time stamp calls and texts and i'm led to believe that on some phones it's possible to see when the internet or email was last used.

I see this every day in the transport industry and it's more dangerous than most people know of. To put this in perspective, a 44 tonne lorry weighs about the same as approximately 36 Volkswagen Golfs. An articulated lorry is almost impossible to regain control of once it loses grip and starts getting out of shape, whether that be a skid or under braking.

The really scary thing is if one of these things hits you full on............

EDIT: As is pointed out later on in this thread, the following maths is actually wrong. I am not great at Maths and there is obviously a reason why i ended up a Truck Driver !

Force = Mass x Velocity.

So 44 tonnes travelling at 56 mph is

44 x 56 = 2,464 TONNES !

That's the force an Artic will hit you with at Motorway speed and that's if you are stationary. Hit on head on on an A road and it gets into silly figures which i'm neither a good enough Mathematician or Physicist  to work out but the likelihood of survival is slim to none.

Why mandatory phone searches are not carried out at every roadside stop is beyond me and quite frankly a joke.

If you travel from Liverpool to London in a car, i guarantee that over 50% of the articulated lorries you drive past or drive past you are texting or using their phones for something other than a hands free phone call.

You have every right to be scared.

I'm proud to say i have never and will never do it. 

Phones in vehicles can have their place and if used sensibly, are a useful and sometimes important tool but the need for sensible use is far greater than a lot of people realise. To address the point that @TTony raised about becoming distracted at junctions, which is entirely valid, there is a solution to that which i use frequently. I simply make the driving a higher priority than the call so unless i'm on a very easy to negotiate piece of road, i will tell the caller i will call them back, bluetooth or not. I do it all the time and i've never had anyone complain about it as they realise what i'm doing and the need for concentration.

It's not the phones at fault, it's the way they are used and some Truck Drivers are just as big a culprit as some car drivers.

FelineGuitars

TTony

That's a very valid point powerfully made @FelineGuitars

VimFuego

FelineGuitars said:

that really makes my blood boil, how many of them selfish bastards were in the cinema with their phones switched on?!?

IanSavage

Alnico said:

Force = Mass x Velocity.

So 44 tonnes travelling at 56 mph is

 

44 x 56 = 2,464 TONNES !

.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry...

 

MOMENTUM = mass x velocity, force is mass x acceleration.

 

However, to expand on your (very valid) point with some back-of-a-fag-packet maths:

For a 44 ton lorry moving at a steady velocity of 56mph (around 25 metres per second), momentum = 44 000 x 25 = 902 000 kgm/s.

The force required to stop a moving object is proportional to and in the opposite direction to its momentum (Newton's second law), and if the mass is constant we can assume that this force F = change in momentum / time taken to decelerate.

 

In a crash, let's (generously) say that this truck comes to a stop in 2 seconds having collided with a stationary vehicle; that is 451 000 Newtons of force or thereabouts.

 

Now consider that a femur can be broken with around 4000 Newtons of force, and a skull can be crushed with as little as 2000 Newtons.

Scary, isn't it?

not_the_dj

The AA suggest that if you pull over on the hard shoulder of a busy motorway your car has about 45mins before it's damaged in some way by another passing vehicle.

Which is handy if they have a 1 hour call out response time ;-)

(joke with a message heard on a speed awareness course)

Alnico

@IanSavage

Thank you, i kind of knew i was off working that out - it's really not my strong point but i did know it turns into stupidly large figures.

(I did try to use google to work that out but like i said, it's very vague knowledge. I'm glad someone tidied that up for me.  )

VimFuego

IanSavage said:

 

Now consider that a femur can be broken with around 4000 Newtons of force, and a skull can be crushed with as little as 2000 Newtons.

Scary, isn't it?

fuck, that is one big apple tree to have all them newtons up there.