Using Mobile Phones While Driving - New Laws

[alchresearch]

The ones which bother me are those who check their phones while at the lights.

 

The lights change and they're still looking down at their phones.

 

When some lights are only green for 5 or 6 seconds its really bad form to hold others up.

[tinfoilhat]

The stats are available for all the on-road grief to be analysed every which way and inside out.

I have my own understanding of the facts and figures and my job involves me in guiding drivers away from the pitfalls. To lay it out here would involve a bit of an essay - achievable with time on my hands ...

Back to the topic and to my specific input in the use of hands-free. Very topical is the case of the second trucker involved in the 8 dead in a minibus. He had been talking on his phone for an hour hands-free (legal) and still managed to not see (presumably) the minibus stationery (or almost stationary) on a motorway with good lines of vision.

Why was his scanning of the road ahead limited to deadly effect?

“Narrow and shallow” as I wrote above? “Inattention blindness” as sometimes stated? Is hands-free safe?

 

I saw that, and the video on BBC. There may have been other factors at play - tiredness (how long had he been driving) but chiefly, after tootling along at a mind numbing 56mph for x amount of time, he might have - for want of a better term - switched off. He probably wasn't expecting a static hgv and minibus in the inside lane (not on the hard shoulder). I'm not sure how the minibus ended behind a static hgv either. Would the driver be any more attentive if was listening to 5live (I mention that as he was talking football) than on his hands free.

 

Inattention blindness is an excellent term.

[Cyclone]

And in this case one where computer assistance would probably have saved everyone (forward looking radar and automatic braking, HUD with obstacle alerting, etc...)

[DT Ralge]

You can counter that by saying how many people involved in accidents aren't on their phone at all....? What about people with noisy kids in the back etcetc...

 

There’s a chance, though, of the noisy kid(s) seeing that Mum/Dad is closing in on a parked up truck and becoming usefully noisy.

 

---------- Post added 10-03-2018 at 06:06 ----------

 

And in this case one where computer assistance would probably have saved everyone (forward looking radar and automatic braking, HUD with obstacle alerting, etc...)

 

Indeed. I enjoyed (to a degree) my ride in a Tesla S on Thursday. Frightening and ludicrous acceleration at a snap of my fingers coupled with autonomous lane holding and speed correction in automated reaction to traffic ahead. (Look Mum, my hands and feet are doing nothing!)

In truth, though, for every “I’m impressed by this” response from me there was an equal and opposite uneasy feeling.

Edited March 10, 2018 by DT Ralge

[Calahonda]

Using a hand held phone

Smoking

Eating

Drinking

Reading

 

All these activities are hazardous whilst driving, how many of us are without sin?

[Cyclone]

In truth, though, for every “I’m impressed by this” response from me there was an equal and opposite uneasy feeling.

 

You'll get over it.

Within a decade the technology will be common place, and it's entirely possible that (laws notwithstanding) cars will drive themselves.

[PRESLEY]

Using a hand held phone

Smoking

Eating

Drinking

Reading

 

All these activities are hazardous whilst driving, how many of us are without sin?

 

Guilty of none, too busy watching out for Chavs on Quads, and idiots riding around on silly motor bikes not wearing helmets, plus boy racers,

[Cyclone]

The thing is though, that eating, smoking or drinking don't use anywhere near the same amount of mental attention as a conversation. They're almost entirely automatic.

They DO involve using a hand, but so does scratching your ear, or changing the radio channel.

And of course talking to a passenger is very like talking on hands free.

The only difference being that some (not all) passengers are drivers and will shut up, or even draw your attention to problems ahead, unlike someone on a phone.

[rudds1]

And in this case one where computer assistance would probably have saved everyone (forward looking radar and automatic braking, HUD with obstacle alerting, etc...)

 

The automatic braking fitted on my truck only works if I'm doing less than around 20 mph so not much use on a motorway buy still a decent system

[PRESLEY]

The thing is though, that eating, smoking or drinking don't use anywhere near the same amount of mental attention as a conversation. They're almost entirely automatic.

They DO involve using a hand, but so does scratching your ear, or changing the radio channel.

And of course talking to a passenger is very like talking on hands free.

The only difference being that some (not all) passengers are drivers and will shut up, or even draw your attention to problems ahead, unlike someone on a phone.

Yes in the past changing a radio station or changing a CD as caused many fatal accidents . A good post.