Mike B. Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 AlanS - 2015-02-04 9:55 PM Don636 - 2015-02-04 9:38 PM I would be fully in agreement with a ban on hands free in a moving vehicle. I do not use one in my car as I believe that it is too much of a distraction and inherently unsafe. I do not agree that it is just the same as listening to the radio or talking to a passenger. I would also add to the list smoking, eating and drinking in a moving vehicle as these also also distracting. Driving is a serious business and you should be concentrating all of the time. You have forgotten one - driving with children in the car, especially when they are in the rear seats ! My wife is diabetic-what would you suggest she does if she feels she is going 'light' at the wheel? Keep driving and not eat or drink anything and thus become a major hazzard and life threating risk to herself and everyone else on the road, or eat a sweet/chocolate bar to quickly bring her sugar levels up and conseqent brain functions back to normal? Not every case is black & white-sometimes it's a neccessity. For instance on a motorway she couldn't pull up on the hard shoulder and have a snack could she? Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joe90 Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Now you've opened another whole can of worms................should they be driving in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 I see nothing wrong in eating chocolate or a biscuit when driving conditions allow you to safely remove one hand from the wheel and I do so myself as long as it is either handed to me by my passenger or kept handy in my eyeline like in a cup holder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowtelse2do Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 Oh for the good old days of hand signals.....my favorite.....\/ :-D Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike B. Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Joe90 - 2015-02-05 8:38 PM Now you've opened another whole can of worms................should they be driving in the first place. So where do you draw the line? Disabled, amputees, heart problems, over 30s, women, spectacle wearers, people who wear gloves to drive, people who wear hats when driving, foreigners, catholics? in fact anyone who doesn't fit in with the myopic self important people who think they can drive better than anyone else and usually make the worst drivers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joe90 Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Mike B. - 2015-02-05 8:57 PM Joe90 - 2015-02-05 8:38 PM Now you've opened another whole can of worms................should they be driving in the first place. So where do you draw the line? Disabled, amputees, heart problems, over 30s, women, spectacle wearers, people who wear gloves to drive, people who wear hats when driving, foreigners, catholics? in fact anyone who doesn't fit in with the myopic self important people who think they can drive better than anyone else and usually make the worst drivers? Is that a multiple choice question ? ........... or do we just pick one, if the latter, probably someone hurtling down the motorway in a 3.5 ton vehicle that feels she is going 'light' at the wheel, but needs to eat, but cannot stop, in order to keep their brain function going ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Had Enough Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Mike B. - 2015-02-05 8:57 PM Joe90 - 2015-02-05 8:38 PM Now you've opened another whole can of worms................should they be driving in the first place. So where do you draw the line? Disabled, amputees, heart problems, over 30s, women, spectacle wearers, people who wear gloves to drive, people who wear hats when driving, foreigners, catholics? in fact anyone who doesn't fit in with the myopic self important people who think they can drive better than anyone else and usually make the worst drivers? It's not really that complicated. Ignoring the very silly examples that you give, you draw the line at people who have a high chance of being a danger to themselves or other road users. And just because some of us hold that common sense view does not makes us 'myopic self important people who think they can drive better than anyone else and usually make the worst drivers'. If for instance the driver of the Glasgow bus had been diagnosed as likely to have a heart attack at any time, he should have been taken off the road. That way several families wouldn't have had their lives destroyed after one of them had been mowed down as they did their Christmas shopping. And if your wife can't manage the twenty minutes to the next service station if she starts to feel queasy, she shouldn't be driving. Apart from which there is no reason that she can't stop on the hard shoulder to eat a Mars Bar if the alternative is collapsing at the wheel. I'm seventy soon and am fitter than many people much younger. I have no health problems, have never smoked, hardly drink and can walk a long way. However, to enable me to continue driving my motorhome in a couple of months I've had to supply a doctor's report costing £85 in which my doctor certifies that I'm healthy and have no conditions that would make me a danger when driving. Am I upset about all this? Of course not. Not everyone is the same and I have friends who are younger than me and are a stroke or heart attack waiting to happen. There has to be a point where drivers must submit to a reasonable check on their capabilities, and in the case of younger people with serious illnesses, they need to be checked as well to ensure that they are fit to drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilreeves Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 What we do not have in the UK is a common sense approach. It seems if you are at a set of traffic lights with you handbrake on, and in neutral and take a bite of the apple then you are guilty of driving without due care and attention. But it is not dangerous. Drive the same car at 30mph in a built up area and take a bite of the apple you are dangerous. The lady driving the car who has diabetes. She is not to know the exact minute she is going to get dizzy. So it is either pull up on the hard shoulder and take a bite of a bar of chocolate, or have a bar of chocolate on the dashboard and take a bite. The common sense approach is to take a bite whilst driving. To pull up on the hard shoulder is very dangerous in all circumstances and should be avoided unless it is an emergency and you cannot get to the next junction or services. It all boils down to common sense and net every case is black and white. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 ilreeves - 2015-02-06 8:26 AM It seems if you are at a set of traffic lights with you handbrake on, and in neutral and take a bite of the apple then you are guilty of driving without due care and attention. But it is not dangerous. Drive the same car at 30mph in a built up area and take a bite of the apple you are dangerous. With "examples"(anecdotes?) such as that, along with the earlier "woman sipping water", are we really sure that those actually happen?..and if they do, are we really getting the full facts? "..stationary...handbrake on..in neutral.."? really? ...or do they tend to be just the snippets from a story that make a good headline?... :-S Isn't it possibly(probable?) that the officers involved may've also witnessed these drivers being, shall we say, less than attentive to their driving before the eating/drinking at the lights incident(s)...? If(and it's a big IF) these examples actually happen as they are "reported", then the prosecutions may seem a little OTT but for balance, in terms of numbers, they are insignificant when they're viewed against the number of silly, selfish, thoughtless and downright dangerous driving practices which some get away with on a daily basis.... :-S As I think someone said earlier(Don), driving just doesn't seem to be taken seriously enough by some folk... (Can someone explain how, whilst mob' phones are understandably a no no, it still appears to be okay to sucker a ruddy great sat nav in the middle of the 'screen..and then to proceed to fiddle with it at will?.... 8o| ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joe90 Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 I don't fiddle with my Satnav, much prefer watching a movie on my in dash DVD player.......... ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muswell Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 pepe63 - 2015-02-06 9:46 AM (Can someone explain how, whilst mob' phones are understandably a no no, it still appears to be okay to sucker a ruddy great sat nav in the middle of the 'screen..and then to proceed to fiddle with it at will?.... 8o| ) From Gov.uk Using hands-free devices when driving "You can use hands-free phones, sat navs and 2-way radios when you’re driving or riding. But if the police think you’re distracted and not in control of your vehicle you could still get stopped and penalised." And that is probably the case for eating apples etc. We had a neighbour who used to set off on the school run pulling out of the hard standing steering with one hand while eating a large apple. It was every day so clearly her breakfast routine. My son had a blow-out in a van travelling in the fast lane of the M4 in heavy traffic and became quite evangelical about keeping both hands on the wheel at all times. It didn't help that the the debris damaged the brake line and he had to stop on engine braking and hand-brake. 8-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave C Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 I have a sat-nav device but it is always located where my wife can see it and I can't. She is able to tell me what comes next in the way of instructions and if I don't hear "the lady" when she gives instructions my wife will relay these to me. If the 'phone should ring I don't answer it, my wife does. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 For safety my sat nav sits atop the instrument binnacle directly in my line of vision and as a bonus that also makes it so much easier to reprogramme it on the move rather than having to stretch to the centre of the van! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.