Distraction by mobile phone

[tonyg3nwl]

The current thinking with which I agree , is that mobile phone use when driving should be banned altogether.

However what about those people who have satnavs which surely can be almost as distracting depending on their size, and position.

 

I have a version of copilot on my tablet, and in the van, the tablet is mounted on the dash in front of the dash radio, such that it does not obscure my vision through the windscreen at all..but I glance at the map display whenever the voice instruction is given.

 

Is this enough risk that should be banned,

 

What do you do? How and where is your satnav mounted?

 

Does your navigator use book maps, and give enough warning of any directions needed.. should that also be considered a distraction in dangerous category?

 

Food for thought I suspect.

 

Tonyg3nwl

 

[Robbo]

Can't say I have a problem with hands-free mobile use.

 

However, banning a hand-held mobile when stationary in a traffic jam can't do any harm ... can it ?

[colin]

I mount the satnav in bottom right hand corner of screen, this leaves it well out the way of my view of road, but easily visible.

[ham]

Use of the phone, another car that was behind, hit me the driver was texting whilst we waited for the traffic lights to change, fortunately for me there was an unmarked police car in the next lane and after breathalysing both of us, Cautioned the other driver and later he was charged with use of a mobile phone and dangerous driving normally would have been due care and attention.

We landed up in court as he blamed me for the accident. He was found guilty on both accounts, fined £350 £175 court costs and 3 points on his license. I then had a battle with his insurance company who at first refused the claim, the reason given was their policy holder had broken the conditions and the law. It took me 6 months and threats of civil court action to get a settlement.

So, I ask is it worth picking up a mobile phone whilst you’re driving or parked with the engine running. Having been a JP, I fully support the law on mobile phone us whilst driving.

Sat Nav mine sits just above the dash and to my right around head height, it as hands free option but I have it in disabled mode.

Tony as a radio ham do you know that it is not illegal to operate whilst driving even if you have the mike in your hand? Crazy but if they had included non use in the law when it was written it would affect all our emergency service at that time , they would not have been able to use the radios. with the new digital radios the still have to take a hand off the steering wheel to press a button. and the law allows prosecution if you are in charge of a vehicle and you do not have your hand/hands on the steering wheel whilst the engine is running

 

[crocs]

ham - 2016-11-27 2:12 PM

 

if you are in charge of a vehicle and you do not have your hand/hands on the steering wheel whilst the engine is running

 

Last time I take my hands off the wheel to change gear! 8o|

[Brian Kirby]

tonyg3nwl - 2016-11-27 10:23 AM

 

The current thinking with which I agree , is that mobile phone use when driving should be banned altogether.

However what about those people who have satnavs which surely can be almost as distracting depending on their size, and position.

 

I have a version of copilot on my tablet, and in the van, the tablet is mounted on the dash in front of the dash radio, such that it does not obscure my vision through the windscreen at all..but I glance at the map display whenever the voice instruction is given.

 

Is this enough risk that should be banned,

 

What do you do? How and where is your satnav mounted?

 

Does your navigator use book maps, and give enough warning of any directions needed.. should that also be considered a distraction in dangerous category?

 

Food for thought I suspect.

 

Tonyg3nwl

A sat-nav is an aid to driving, in that it provides continual visual route guidance, which allows the driver to plan much further ahead when approaching turnings than is probable if looking for road signs. It can be consulted as/when the driver wishes, so s/he can be kept continually aware of the direction of the road, bends, etc, even when they are out of sight.

 

A phone can only disrupt a driver's concentration. It has nothing to do with driving. Better to turn it off while driving, so that callers can leave messages or send texts etc. The caller has no appreciation of road or traffic conditions at the time they call, so has no idea what amount of concentration is demanded of the driver at the time. Driving on a largely deserted dual carriageway, I guess we could all safely handle a call, hands free or not, but while navigating Parliament Square (where I once saw a black cab hit one of those nice big red double-decker buses! :-)), even if on hands free??

[Dave C]

My SatNav is on the dash in front of my co-pilot - who also has the mobile phone with her. I can't see the screen of the SatNav and should the phone ring (it rarely does) my wife answers it.

 

 

Dave

 

[StuartO]

We changed our car recently and the new one has a baffling array of electronic features, including hands-free phone and satnavbut lots of other things that require attention to detail of touch-screen options if you want to use them.  There is quite a learning curve and every time I learn something new I seem to forget something else, so it is necessary to limit what you try to make use of, especially when driving. I think modern car electronics have gone far too far in presenting drivers with distracting options.

 

It has been argued that there are varying attention requirements when driving too, so sometimes you can safely sort out a music selection or solve a radio reception issue by retuning whilst on the move but mostly driving on our busy British roads requires undivided attention, especially for people in my age group, so sticking strictly to the challenges of driving is a good plan. 

 

But I don't support the idea of blanket banning everything and nor should the police prosecute for trivial reasons, like the case when a woman was prosecuted for drinking water while stationary at traffic lights.

 

I have used a handheld phone to take a call while driving in the past but I don't do it in any circumstances any more, mostly I suppose because as a retiree I rarely receive urgent calls and Management is usually sitting alongside me and can take the call instead of me.  I am influenced in whether I would still risk taking a call by the general principle of whether it's acceptable behaviour and these days I am will to accept that it isn't, so I never make a call or send or read a text and I probably won't ever take a call on a handheld again.

 

But we see lots of people using phones as they drive around and not having handsfree doesn't discourage them.  My son uses his handsfree more or less continuously when he's driving in order to make a car journey useful working time, but then he's a lot younger and faster-thinking than me, so maybe he can do it safely.  He would argue that it's no different from holding a conversation with someone in the car.

 

Overall I think banning the use of handhelds completely is fair enough and I wish we had enough traffic cops patrolling to be an effective deterrent.  Our roads are too crowded and busy these days to tolerate silly abuse of that sort. 

 

Generally speaking I'm content to leave it to police discretion whether to prosecute a driver for driving without due care, based on whether it looks to them like an unreasonable distraction is being allowed and I don't think we need to resort to specific offences when a non-specific offence like that one is available.  If the police want to prosecute someone for sipping water at the trafffic lights the accused has the right to challenge their view to the magistrates in court.

 

[pepe63xnotuse]

Now that the nights have drawn in, when in queuing traffic, you notice just how "prominently" some folk mount their satnavs...it's quite usual to see them stuck pretty much centre screen and blazing back into the drivers face!..

..would folk prop their map on the dash? no..

 

You wouldn't be allowed to put any other obstruction there (..and a car can fail it's mot if there's a chip in the screen) so why do some deem it okay to obscure their forward vision with a satnav?...

 

 

:-S

[Will86]

My Satnav is positioned on a rotating base facing away so I listen to the voice instruction only. I find its the same as a passenger telling me which way. If the route is complicated it can be rotated.

 

I prefer not to have the illuminated glow in my sight unless essential.