Does anybody think the new laws on driving whist using a mobile too lenient?

Question

Research shows using a mobile while driving has a worse effect then alcohol shouldn't the punishment fit the crime.

Answer 1

Personally, I think cars should be fitted with jamming devices so you can't use a mobile while you're moving. The guy above is talking pish. Police cars crash all the time, jet aircraft taxi on runways alone & Schumi never had to deal with Fernando asking his missus what's for dinner! You CANNOT drive on public roads with other traffic while babbling into your mobi, whether you're holding it or not. Hand out a minimum 12 month ban, as for drink driving.

Answer 2

To the guy that made the point about research, well the reason why talking on your mobile phone is dangerous is two fold, the distraction of talking on the Mobile but also the use of the mobile in your hand (rather than a hands free kit).

Since the new rules have come into place I have seen so many more people texting on their phone while drive. Its horrible to watch, they try to hide their phone so they try to text and drive while holding the phone just below the steering wheel, so they keep looking up and down while texting.

Also since the new laws have come into place I think if I was a policeman I could have put 30 points on peoples licence.

I don't think the change in the law has had much effect on the people that do use mobile phones while driving

Answer 3

Yes I do. As a motorcyclist I have almost been knocked down on many occasions due to drivers being distracted by there mobile phones. The worst example I saw was a driver answering a call and trying to write the information down in a diary whilst driving at the same time.
Driving is a privilege not a right and should be treated that way as and automobile should be considered a leathal weapon and reckless drivers should be treated that way

Answer 4

Have you seen the start of escape from LA with Kurt Russell, it starts of by running a list of things that are illegal. Smoking, eating chocolate, using salt etc.
I have served this county in the army and fought for life liberty and freedom and never for one moment thought that this country would be as repressive on its citizens.
We have shootings in London and the answer from the government is to ban replica fire arms, I would like to know how many people have been shot by modified replica fire arms.
This government has over the last few years introduced bus lanes, cycle lanes, taxi lanes, road calming, speed cameras etc and now as a result of surprise surprise congestion is talking about introducing road charges.
There are three things that this government use in introduce additional restrictive laws:-
1) Terrorism
2) Crime
3) Car Driver

Answer 5

too lenient, no way!
there are already laws on the books to deal with distracted driving, careless driving, and wreckless driving.
Why do we need another law when if you are distracted by a cellphone your driving easily falls into any of the illegal activities I just mentioned?
Just because some people aren't smart enough to know when to hang up and drive doesn't mean the rest of us shouldn't be allowed to.
As a generality I do not talk & drive alot, but sometimes I do. I want that freedom to do so and think laws preventing me are totally bogus. I'm also willing to tell the callers 'I'm in traffic and I need to hang up & drive' or 'the weather's bad, I need to hang up and drive'. SMART people are capable of that.
A cop shouldn't be able to pull me over for just being on the phone - or drinking coffee, or eating a cheeseburger. They should have to prove that I wasn't driving properly before ticketing me for anything.

Answer 6

Yes, much too lenient. The research the 'professional driver' above is talking about are European studies into 'multi-tasking', which show that concentration inevitably suffers while trying to do two things at once. It's a danger to yourself and other road users: don't do it.

Answer 7

Yeh,course its too lenient,people using mobiles while driving should at least be banged up for 10 years,while all the robbers,muggers & drug dealers get let off cos the prisons are full up.

Answer 8

I love that all embracing comment "Research has shown."

What research, when and by whom and under what circumstances?

People never quote sources, but think that "research" is a bit like washing-powder, where the manufacturers try to tell you that theirs washes whiter than white, when the reality is that they are no better or worse then any other.

My own "research" is rather more compelling, and based on day to day events.

Each and every day, as many as 550 people climb onboard planes, where the pilot reverses, taxis in a bomb full of fuel at 30mph, makes several sharp-turns, checks all his instruments, throttles up, releases the brakes and hurtles off down a runway at 200mph+ before rotating and taking to the air. He then has to gather speed and height, making all the necessary flight adjustments with hands and feet, as well as head in the right direction.

AT ALL TIMES, HE IS TALKING TO HIS CO-PILOT, HIS CABIN STAFF, SOMETIMES TO THE PASSENGERS AND ALWAYS TO GROUND-CONTROL ON THE RADIO.

He isn't the only one.....the POLICE and other emergency services, ship's captains, hovercraft pilots and taxi-drivers, among others.

Even racing-drivers chat to their team-managers at 200mph....sometimes for extended periods of time, whilst rally-drivers and co-drivers actually read "pace notes" and communicate through head-sets built into crash-helmets while travelling at speeds of up to 120mph on roads barely wide enough for two bicycles.

The simple fact is, there are drivers and there are motorists, and it is the motorists who are the greatest danger, because they are on the roads more by necessity than choice. It is the "motorists" who cram their vehicles with noisy-relatives and take them to school, and who are distracted by almost anything.

The professional DRIVERS, which include remember, the POLICE, are usually not distracted by a simple conversation or even quite a complex one, and as a PROFESSIONAL DRIVER I am regularly "talked in" to delivery points by someone giving me hands-free directions on the telephone, or telling me where to go next.

I have done this ever since mobile-phones came out, and thus far, not a single near-miss or accident in the process. Over 25 years of communicating whilst driving, I have driven perhaps 2,500,000 miles, and the last advice I need is from jobsworths who want to make me "Think," amateur motorists who "Think" they can drive and who "Think" that they know all the answers.

Whilst I acknowledge that holding a phone in one hand is quite a dangerous thing to do, unless one is on a half-deserted motorway at 3am, the simple fact is that merely passing laws, as Tony Blair has discovered, makes very little difference to almost anything, and certainly not to the accident rate, which remains more or less static in the UK.....the SAFEST roads per mile in Europe.

The forest of legislation passed merely results in a lot of employment for people who would otherwise be unemployable.....AND WE'RE PAYING FOR IT.



Edit: Evelynthemodifieddog should not judge others by her own abilities, or lack of them.

Edit 2: Borealis....I never mentioned anything other than hands-free. What you need to ask, is whether ALL people at ALL times are distracted by ALL telephone calls. I am certainly not, and the last conversation I had, I was reversing "blind side" onto a parking-bay at a warehouse in a 60ft long truck. I'm sorry, but some people are just far better than others but the "research" and "the law" reflect, as always, the lowest common denominator.

Answer 9

Most definitely. I saw one today. Pseudo off road vehicle. Front foglights blazing. I cannot begin to express the contempt I feel for such people.

Answer 10

Yes I think the fine should be higher than £60