Are the police tackling the cause of accidents?

[DT Ralge]

If they really wanted to reduce accidents, they could start by enforcing the laws we all ready have, esp using a phone while driving.

 

Presumably hand-held?

 

Have you the split-screen anti-mobile advert where businessman phones wife (in separate screen) on the way home from his meeting: "how did it go?", "tell you later ... Bang"

 

What, in the advert, leads us to believe that the driver holding the phone to his ear contributed to the crash?

 

---------- Post added 08-12-2014 at 23:33 ----------

 

What is the number one cause of accidents?

I am aware of the police speed cameras, but speed is not the main cause of accidents, unless you live in Irland. What can the police do to make people see other road users, and not misjudge their path/speed?

 

I guess the Police can do very little to change the fact that SMIDSY is a contributory factor in a huge number of crashes.

 

Drivers, however, need to reflect on what leads to SMIDSY. Here's a few:

- complacency, lack of attention

- over-familiarity with the road, junction

- situational blindness (there's never been a cyclist at this spot, at this time of the day)

- quick look 'n go, in a rush

- physical obstructions to vision given by door/window pillar, trees, parked cars

- driver looking in wrong place, wrong depth of focus (very similar to the scan of the cupboard/fridge and failure to see what's in front of you)

- narrow profiles of bikes, motor bikes make them difficult to see and make it hard to assess their speed

- saccadic masking (scan right, scan left, miss everything in the middle)

- 2% blind spot in eye (at base of optic nerve) equating to the width of a car at 30 metres from driver.

 

How can drivers get to know all this? Only through decent training, I reckon, that doesn't involve punters looking to pass the test with minimum fuss and expense or (on the other side of the coin) "cheap, cheerful and desperate-for-work instructors" that are sought on here ad nauseam.

 

---------- Post added 08-12-2014 at 23:37 ----------

 

Every time they pull a driver over to stop them for some reason they also require them to take the numberplate test you do on the driving test.

 

Take a few moments, and it'll weed people out quickly...

 

If my experience is anything to go by, poor eyesight is no more the problem than lack of physical control skills. In 10 years, I have only refused to go out in a vehicle with a driver on 4 occasions.

Edited December 8, 2014 by DT Ralge