Driving while on a mobile phone

dosman

I reckon it's getting worse...

I reckon anyone involved in an accident while on a moblie phone should get an automatic jail sentence. What d'ya think?

kippy

Slightly off topic, but the worst thing at the moment is the racing going on right now on the dual carriageway outside the clayton. The cops should look at that before anything else.

dosman

There's a huge difference between race drivers and retards!

I'm talking about those that think that their next text message is more important than their kids safety..

kippy

dosman wrote: »

There's a huge difference between race drivers and retards!

I'm talking about those that think that their next text message is more important than their kids safety..

Let me tell you, the guys currently racing up and down the dual carriageway are not race drivers nor is where they are racing safe for racing...........


In fairness doing anything while driving, talking to someone else, putting on makeup, any form of distraction really is pretty dangerous.

I dont think there are any more people using their mobiles when driving than there were before the ban. In fact from what I have seen there seem to be less....
Kippy

dosman

Apologies, I thought you were talking about the Rally.

I'm talking about the mobile phone hegemony that seems to be the norm in Galway.

In other words it's ok to use a mobile phone while driving. What harm eh?

Every day when I drive my child to nursery I see it happen.

These drivers are retards and in my opinion no worse than drunk drivers.

Fionn MacCool

Even the Guards do it, so what hope have we?

wandatowell

Note down the reg number and pop into your local garda station to report it. They should treat it like any other complaint.
But the likely hood is, is that nothing will happen

swimgal08

Fionn MacCool wrote: »

Even the Guards do it, so what hope have we?

gardai have the right to use a hand held phone while driving

wandatowell

wandatowell wrote: »

Note down the reg number and pop into your local garda station to report it. They should treat it like any other complaint.
But the likely hood is, is that nothing will happen

lack of any evidence whatsoever being the main issue.

dosman

On Friday I saw a woman with a car full of kids actuallly texting on her phone as she dropped her kids off at school. :eek: She was zig zagging all over the road and almost went up on the pavement, where kids were walking to school. If she was drunk would people let it slide so easily?

The point is, what would stop people using their phone while driving?

biko

I saw a woman in a MPV on the phone as she came out of Nuns Island, across the Garda station - now that's negligence.
Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. If so I would have got a few snaps of her face and reg number and posted here and Motors forum.

1Barney

I'm fed up seeing people on their mobiles while driving. It's getting worse!! Do these people think the law is not applicable to them or that no one sees them on their phones? There's no need for it. Almost all phones now have speakers and a hands free kit is only about 150 quid. So here's the thing. I was thinking of maybe starting to blow the horn everything I see someone doing it, or even taking their photo and putting it up on the web somewhere. Maybe I'm just plane crazy but seeing so many people endangering others through their negligence is nothing short of criminal.

Does anyone agree?

m83

biko wrote: »

I saw a woman in a MPV on the phone as she came out of Nuns Island, across the Garda station - now that's negligence.
Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. If so I would have got a few snaps of her face and reg number and posted here and Motors forum.

Uggggh... have you nothing better to do?

MaxForce

The worst thing at the moment is these bloody boy racers we live just down from Quailty Hotel in Oranmore and from 11.30 to about 4.30 am last night they were racing up and down dual carriage way they woke our little girl up twice we have rang the gaurds but it does not seem to help someone is going to be seriously hurt if it is not stopped

biko

m83 wrote: »

Uggggh... have you nothing better to do?

What you suggest I do? Kick their door? Do you yourself hold a phone while driving?

Science bit: British scientists at the Transport Research Laboratory say that reaction times for a driver talking on a mobile are, on average, 30% slower than for one who is just over the legal alcohol limit.

There is law that you cannot even hold a phone while driving.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/04/12/wireless12_ed3_.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7621644.stm
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mobile-use-in-car-more-dangerous-than-drink-654995.html

m83

biko wrote: »

What you suggest I do? Kick their door? Do you yourself hold a phone while driving?

Science bit: British scientists at the Transport Research Laboratory say that reaction times for a driver talking on a mobile are, on average, 30% slower than for one who is just over the legal alcohol limit.

There is law that you cannot even hold a phone while driving.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/04/12/wireless12_ed3_.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7621644.stm
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mobile-use-in-car-more-dangerous-than-drink-654995.html

How about minding your own business?

con71

m83 wrote: »

How about minding your own business?

Nice lad....

KevR

Anyone else ever see people who have their phones on loudspeaker and hold it up near their/face mouth (but not up to their ear) while driving? I presume they think this is ok and that it's only illegal to hold it up to their ear - although I don't know where they would have come to that conclusion, it makes no sense that you would be allowed to hold it up near your mouth and just not up to your ear. Anyway that is clearly illegal - you can't hold the phone in your hand at all.

biko

I won't mind my business when people are getting killed by eejits on the phone/texting.

Rachel Begg, who was found to have used her cellphone nine different times in the 15 minutes prior to crashing into a grandmother's vehicle and subsequently killing her, was recently found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison. To make matters worse, Begg was driving nearly 70 miles-per-hour on a dark, rainy night, and the judge reportedly emphasized how costly her lack of reason was.

"If you put a 20-year-old driver behind the wheel with a cell phone, their reaction times are the same as a 70-year-old driver who is not using a cell phone," said University of Utah psychology professor David Strayer.

Kiera Coultas, 25, a hotel manager, was replying to a message on her mobile phone when she hit Jordan Wickington, 19, a scaffolder. Coultas, who has a four-year-old daughter, did not see him because she was replying to a text message.

m83, I'd like to hear your defence for using the phone while driving. Why do you think it's ok and I should leave these people alone?

KTRIC

biko wrote: »

I'd like to hear your defence for using the phone while driving.

There isn't one.


I was nearly knocked off my motorbike several times by people talking on their phones. Their excuse is "I didn't see you" because they can't with their hand in front of their faces.

Sam Kade

1Barney wrote: »

Almost all phones now have speakers and a hands free kit is only about 150 quid. So here's the thing. I was thinking of maybe starting to blow the horn everything I see someone doing it, or even taking their photo and putting it up on the web somewhere.

So while you are driving past someone using the phone while driving you grab the camera take your two hands off the wheel look through the lens to take their picture and use your elbow to blow the horn at them.

kayos

The sooner all cars come with Bluetooth kits built in as standard the better. I have one built into the car and it’s the best invention ever, ok maybe not eh best ever but a bloody handy one. Also if these twats on the phones have a GPS stuck to the window why did they not just go and buy a GPS with a Bluetooth hands-free built into it? They were spending a chunk of cash any way so shelling out the little extra for a hands free would be smart.

As for the guards using mobiles while driving they are allowed. But on the same hand I once saw a cop driving down a pedestrian street while texting, what a role model!

On a side note sometimes you see people messing with the GPS while driving and it is as bad if not worse than being on the phone. Not only is a hand busy and mind on the GPS but they normally have their eyes glued to the thing as well. Set up your route before you get underway!

claireeney

sometimes when im sitting in traffic with nothing better to do i count the number of people coming in the opposite direction that are using their mobiles. it would horrify you some days. the number of times i have come close to getting hit in a carpark by some fool on the phone trying to park.... still illegal in a car park i presume?

and for those of you who slouch down in the drivers seat while on the phone - you are fooling nobody but yourselves.

and as for speeding - i live near the sean mulvoy and it seems to make no difference to anyone on it that a lad was killed there from speeding. the guards have to get off their holes and do something. :mad:

Fionn MacCool

swimgal08 wrote: »

gardai have the right to use a hand held phone while driving

Really? What a ****ing ridiculous rule, they drive faster than most civilians.

m83

Biko, Let's not be rash. Of course I don't condone using a mobile phone while driving. I just have a problem with vigilanteeism. I mean where do we draw the line? Throwing rubbish on the street? Being drunk and disorderly? Playing ball games in eyre square? If you really want to enforce the law then join the Gardai.

Angelandie

Today walking through the grounds of uchg i saw a driver using his mobile phone and smoking a cigarette at the same time, he could barely drive! Its a joke, there are so many different options now, there's no reason for a hand-held phone. I use bluetooth, via my car radio!

biko

m83 wrote: »

Biko, Let's not be rash. Of course I don't condone using a mobile phone while driving. I just have a problem with vigilanteeism. I mean where do we draw the line? Throwing rubbish on the street? Being drunk and disorderly? Playing ball games in eyre square? If you really want to enforce the law then join the Gardai.

M83, it's not you but the usual Irish display of the "meh, let someone else deal with it..." often combined with "omg, why isn't someone doing something??!11!" really gets my goat.

My line is drawn where someone does something stupid that can affect me or my loved ones personally.

I don't condone drunk driving, why the f*ck should I look the other way when someone does something equally stupid/dangerous?

Sleipnir

dosman wrote: »

I reckon it's getting worse...

I reckon anyone involved in an accident while on a moblie phone should get an automatic jail sentence. What d'ya think?

I think there are far worse crimes for which this should happen first. Stabbing a guy in the head for instance? Suspended sentence! Then he goes out a slits a girl's throat.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/monster-free-to-kill-nurse-after-avoiding-jail-for-attack-1607148.html

In December 2005, Judge Pat McCartan gave McBarron a two-year suspended sentence at Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court for assault causing actual bodily harm to Mr Prokopec, who was a barman at a nightclub in Arklow.

Mr Prokopec was on is way home in the early hours of November 1, 2004 when he bumped into McBarron on Arklow's Main Street and fell into conversation with him.

The barman gave McBarron a cigarette and went to walk away after declining to give him a second one. But McBarron ran after him with a knife and stabbed him several times in the head and face.

As well as the stab wounds, Mr Prokopec was left with fractures near his eye and cheek bone, exposed tendons on his hand and injuries to the abdomen, back and scalp.

An "automatic jail" sentence for driving while on a mobile is a bit heavy-handed plus completely impractical. Our prisons are busting at the seams as it is.

dosman

Sleipnir wrote: »

I think there are far worse crimes for which this should happen first. Stabbing a guy in the head for instance? Suspended sentence! Then he goes out a slits a girl's throat.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/monster-free-to-kill-nurse-after-avoiding-jail-for-attack-1607148.html


An "automatic jail" sentence for driving while on a mobile is a bit heavy-handed plus completely impractical. Our prisons are busting at the seams as it is.

I hear what you're saying Sleipnir and agree with you regarding the lack of appropriate sentencing for serious crime.

I'm not talking about jailing drivers just for using a mobile, I'm talking about drivers who cause an accident resulting in serious injury or death as a direct result of their irresponsible actions.

If a drunk driver was convicted of seriously injuring/killing someone would you expect them to get a prison sentence? I know I would, although I'm sure it's not always the sentence handed out.

I guess it all falls under the category of Dangerous Driving, but using a phone while driving just doesn't have the same stigma as drink driving even though it can be as dangerous.

I'm frustrated at the frequency I see bad driving caused by folks on their phones. Only a few days ago I saw a ridiculous "near miss" between a 4x4 and a bunch of schoolkids walking on the pavement, all because some stupid bint was texting. :eek:

There has to be a reasonable day to day deterrent, whether it's increased attention from the Garda or higher penalty points etc but it just doesn't seem to be working at the moment judging by the number of folks who are ignoring their own and other peoples safety through a complete lack of common sense.

gaillimheach

It is just as dangerous to be eating while driving, or drinking.

Yet there's no law against that, is there?

claireeney

gaillimheach wrote: »

It is just as dangerous to be eating while driving, or drinking.

Yet there's no law against that, is there?

What??!!! somebody told me there was!!! all the journeys where ive starved!

louisecm

I'm sick of bus drivers being on the phone, they have my life and all the other passengers' in their hands! Really don't know how they get away with it.

Mrs OBumble

gaillimheach wrote: »

It is just as dangerous to be eating while driving, or drinking.

Yet there's no law against that, is there?

I suspect that the studies show phone use is a lot more dangerous: it's a lot harder to manipulate a phone than to wriggle a toffee wrapper off.

There is a law against dangerous driving, which covers a multitude of things, and could be used for eating. However it's far more work to prove that a particular action was dangerous than to prove that someone was doing a specifc action (eg holding a phone).

KevR

gaillimheach wrote: »

It is just as dangerous to be eating while driving, or drinking.

Yet there's no law against that, is there?

It's nowhere near as dangerous to eat, drink (non alcoholic drinks), smoke, listen to the radio etc as it is to talk on a phone.

m83

KevR wrote: »

It's nowhere near as dangerous to eat, drink (non alcoholic drinks), smoke, listen to the radio etc as it is to talk on a phone.

Is this your opinion or have you facts to back it up?

VanhireBoys

Just a bit OT here .. but my wife and I were going along the Oranmore dual carraigeway - takin it easy I might add when my wifes phone rang. She searched the floor for her bag - then realised it was on the back seat. She turned around and got the phone and answered it.....

While this was taking place a taxi passed and the taximan had a real look of shock... Why....?

The car I was driving was Left hand drive and the taximan thought she was turned around on the seat talking on the phone while driving....:eek:

Mrs OBumble

m83 wrote: »

Is this your opinion or have you facts to back it up?

The fact that there is no law banning car radios (which have been around for a long time) suggests that there's no evidence against them.

Robbo

m83 wrote: »

Is this your opinion or have you facts to back it up?

Common sense? If you exert the same mental effort into eating as making a phonecall, I'd suggest you're sufficiently feeble minded that you shouldn't be behind the wheel in the first place.

biko

Do the quiz on page 4

Robbo

biko wrote: »

Do the quiz on page 4

It is refreshing to learn that I do my safest driving when I'm not in a car or when I don't own a mobile. I reckon there's a bit more improvement to be made if I don't get out of bed altogether and sleep in a coccoon of bubble wrap...

KevR

m83 wrote: »

Is this your opinion or have you facts to back it up?

It's my opinion.

Although I'm sure I also read a study on the RSA website which said something similar. Will see if I can find it later when I get a chance.

*Tripper*

That Zurich quiz is stupid.

Das Kitty

*Tripper* wrote: »

That Zurich quiz is stupid.

What?

So I shouldn't have based all my self-worth for the week on it? Dammit.

Robbo

Das Kitty wrote: »

So I shouldn't have based all my self-worth for the week on it? Dammit.

No. For that you use a "Which High School Musical character are you?" quiz from Bebo.

Das Kitty

Robbo wrote: »

No. For that you use a "Which High School Musical character are you?" quiz from Bebo.

*fingers crossed*

Please be Gabrielle, Please be Gabrielle! **


**The only name I know because I saw her muff on a TV show once :eek:

Robbo

Das Kitty wrote: »

*fingers crossed*

Please be Gabrielle, Please be Gabrielle! **


**The only name I know because I saw her muff on a TV show once :eek:

I'm the good looking rebel who plays by his own rules but learns a few lessons in life and compassion along the way. There is one of those?