Using a mobile phone while driving

I think it should be banned.

3pts on your Licence if caught while driving including hand free.

Do you drive while using the phone or do you stop at the side somewhere safe before answering it?

Originally posted by John

I think it should be banned.

 

3pts on your Licence if caught while driving including hand free.

 

Do you drive while using the phone or do you stop at the side somewhere safe before answering it?

While I agree that hand held phone usage while driving should be banned, I don't think you can include hands free. Talking on a hands free kit is no more dangerous than talking to a passenger, if anything, less so as there is no temptation to look at the other person you are talking to. Are you proposing banning passengers too? You could argue that even on a hands free kit you are still required to press buttons to receive calls or make calls, but this is no different to changing radio stations, using air con., sat nav, windows, etc etc. Ban all of those too? Also, what about the people that NEED to use phones whilst driving. Travelling sales reps for example, for whom many 'office' hours are spent on the road, and making/receiving phone calls in this otherwise wasted time is a necessity. There is no way that hands free kits should be banned in cars.

im not convinced by "Talking on a hands free kit is no more dangerous than talking to a passenger, if anything, less so"

you have to think on a passenger can react to whats going on around you and stop talking when you need to consentrate on the road, someone talking down a phone doesnt know that

but i agree it shouldnt be banned, just that it should be restricted to bluetooth and not normal handsfree kits

Its no more dangerous than driving after a couple of pints, talking to a car full of passengers, changing radio stations/cd's...there's already far too many laws trying to control the way we live. I say do what you want when you want....just look where you're going occasionally.

do you drive? i really hope not as its people like you who cause accidents

Originally posted by RPG

do you drive? i really hope not as its people like you who cause accidents

i've had a few...won't admit to being a good driver...its a necessary evil unfortunately

Just wanted say, I love the new iggy list!

it should be banned! i can't drive yet, but when i can i wont be answering the fone while driving!!!

It should carry a serious penalty to be a true deterrent. Driving while on a mobile is a major distraction. I'm not sure about Hands free though.

They did some tests on TV a while back to prove that when you use your mobile phone, you don't concentrate on the road properly.

The basically had a conversation with someone over a mobile phone (using a hands free kit) whilst they were driving around a short course. Afterwards, they asked questions about the conversation to see whether the driver had been paying attention. What I seem to remember them discovering was that all the drivers drove fine but could hardly recall any details about the conversations.

What this proved was that it was the conversation that suffered, not the driving. They tried to use this as proof that your concentration drops when when you're on the phone... erm... well, that's true - what they didn't really make a big deal of is that their driving didn't suffer!

Anyway... IMHO I think that driving with proper in car hands free kits should be fine. I'm a little more uncertain about a normal personal hands free kit though, as those are a bit "fiddly".

BTW... isn't it illegal to drive without due care and attention anyway? So why ban something that's already covered by law?