49 replies to this topic

[MacGyver]

And on the subject of Sat Nav, Mine warns me when i switch it on not to make adjustments to the route whilst driving.
 
I don't use mine hardly ever but have never found a reason to change anything once the route is set anyway

On that subject, I see Soooooo many people getting in there car, start to drive off and then they program the sat-nav or phone someone. The worst bit is they seem to struggle at it as they try to put there seat belt on and watch the road too...
Surely it would save them time and hassle to program it first, no?

[johnR]

I absolutely agree with the legislation banning the use of mobiles in cars (the number of times I've had cars/vans veer towards me while their drivers are texting) but I also remember the early Eighties when as a single crewed Police driver we had one UHF radio round our neck and a VHF handset on a curly cable to deal with whilst chasing criminals! 

[lawrence]

How about start stop? Start stop and queued in traffic I do sometimes look at my phone. Then again handbrake would be on like normal and technically the key isn't in the ignition as it's a keyless car so am I now parked?

In addition how about filling my ecig? Again I do that when at lights, stopped, engine off, not moving and handbrake on. Technically I can be done for being a distracted driver ?

I wonder how a court of law would see it if you had a dash cam for the interior that clearly showed you stopped etc? Just curious

[Ethel]

I think the law states parked, so if you're in a line of traffic, not next to the curb, there are yellow lines....

 

Could make for a bit of a dilemma what offence to charge you with though, and will need looking at if we're all in leccy cars before they're also driverless.

[r3k1355]

It's be tough to claim you were parked on the 3rd land of the M1.

 

You've stopped.

[Cooperman]

The law seems to be a bit 'grey'.

 

If you are stuck on a m'way, engine off and not having moved for an hour it seems you are still 'driving' for the purposes of the mobile phone use. In fact you may not even touch it. One might wonder what happens if you get out and stand with lots of other drivers on the hard shoulder and take your phone with you. The offence would be that you were in the car when you actually touched it to pick it up and get out of the car. What if you opened the door, leaned in and picked up the phone, or if a passenger picked up the phone and handed it to you when you were already out of the car.

 

However, if you are an HGV driver, whilst stuck in the same jam you can deduct the time spent stationery from your permissible driving hours, so you are not legally driving neither are you parked apparently. This mean a truck driver claiming this as 'dead time' for driving hours is then not legally driving and can legally use his mobile phone (or re-programme his sat nav).

 

Of course using a hand-held mobile should be illegal whilst driving, but the definitions of what 'driving' actually comprises seems a bit vague or badly defined it would seem. There are direct contradictions as to what constitutes driving.

[Ben_O]

Either way, sat in traffic is not parked no matter if the engine is running or not.

 

Would leaving you car in a jam on the motorway and wandering away be classed as illegal parking or abandonment?

[mk3 Cooper S]

Hi all,

 

Been a while since I posted anything here, but I'm still a ninja lurker!

 

I though you guys would be a good bunch to ask on this. My dear old mum came home in tears this evening after getting caught sending a sneaky text whilst at some traffic lights (rush hour). They pulled her over and wrote her up and said she'd find out the consequences in the post within 30 days. 

 

Will it be the bang bang chicken of 6 points and £200 or is she likely to get a warning or caution having a 34 year old driving license that has never had a point on it?

 

I know it's the waiting game for that brown envelope anyway... and I'm sure they enforce this one pretty rigidly. But it's always worth fishing for opinions! 

Thanks! 

Craig

So what happened. Has the summons arrived?

[Spider]

Bummer to read what happened to your Mum. Sure the rules may well be established, but given the circumstances, it's a bit rough I feel. Sounds like revenue raising to me.

 

 

One thing which is not terribly clear is what happens if you are stuck in a long motorway tailback with stationery traffic on all lanes. You will obviously have switched the engine off for a long wait, but are you then technically 'parked' and thus able to use the phone, or would you need to get out of the vehicle and walk away from it with the phone?

 

While quite different but in a similar vein, there have been instance here where people have gone to a party, had too much to drink, then go back to their car to sleep it off. They make the mistake (auto-pilot) of putting the keys in the ignition, then next morning, despite clear being parked, not driven, cold engine etc, they have been tested & booked for drink driving. I don't know but I think the error here is putting the keys in the ignition. None the less, I find that very rough.

[Ethel]

A lot of legislation does leave the Police with some discretion - cycling on pavements is pretty much ignored in most places, for example.

However, coppers have performance targets they never used to and local authorities are strapped for cash.

[Cooperman]

I broke the law relating t mobile phones today. I was driving my Land Rover and the mobile was in the central glove box.

I wanted to get a CD out to change it and I opened the glove box. As the phone was right on top I had to take the phone out and put it on the front passenger seat, get the CD and replace the phone in the glove box. The illegality came when I touched the phone, not when I touched the CD.

Now, does that make any sense? Not to me it doesn't.

[johnR]

When you compare two similar actions as Cooperman has it does seem anomalous that one is potentially illegal and the other not (although if the act of getting your CD out causes you to lose control of the car that would of course be similarly illegal - my brother's girlfriend wrote his car off doing just that) I think it's just a matter of having to draw a line somewhere and I don't think there's any doubt about the dangers of mobile phone use by drivers.  I would advocate all new cars should have hands free communications/ radios/satnavs built in and voice controlled. Although two people (note I didn't particularly specify women) chatting whilst one of them is driving is just as dangerous as someone on a phone.  Roll on autonomous cars - than perhaps a driving test to IAM standard for people who want to manually drive?

[Cooperman]

What about smoking whilst driving? The act of lighting a cigarette is not conducive to safety.
Many years ago I had a friend who crashed his E-Type when he dropped a lighted cigarette between his legs whilst driving on a country road.
Are we going to ban having a conversation with a passenger?
The problem with phones is dialling and texting.
My BMW has a small keyboard which slides away into the dash, so I can dial a number without touching the phone. It's all Bluetooth technology.

[Ethel]

I'm sure people have been prosecuted for things like eating an apple while driving. 

[The Matt]

It's not really a grey area, it's not really a lack of common sense on the law maker's part.  It's about the historical total and utter recklessness of people when using phones at the wheel of their car.  They want to shut down ALL use of mobiles when driving.  If their use hadn't been so problematic since their introduction, then maybe the laws wouldn't be as strict as they are.

 

Making comparisons about it being OK to smoke, or to eat an apple, or to pick out a new CD are all pretty irrelevant really.

 

As for people being more likely to get punished for using a mobile than for growing weed with intent to supply...yeah, OK.