Punishment for texting behind the wheel to be doubled. (UK)

Comhrá

Authorities in the UK are apparently going to get a lot tougher on driving/texting, and hopefully the Gardai or whoever drafts road use legislation will sit up and take notice here too.

http://news.sky.com/story/punishment-for-texting-behind-the-wheel-to-be-doubled-10581249

Atlantic Dawn

It should be €500 here, no excuse for it.

Guy:Incognito

They could up the punishment to death for all the difference it'd make. I'd say I see 15-20+ people a day on their phone driving around. I could be self funding on a very good salary with plenty left over if the Gardai gave me a job and a car.

Bluetooth should be mandatory on new cars.

moc moc a moc

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Bluetooth should be mandatory on new cars.

How do you text with bluetooth?

mansize

moc moc a moc wrote: »

How do you text with bluetooth?

Siri?

Texts, by their nature, aren't urgent. It can wait.

endacl

Jaysus. How did we survive at all driving before the invention of the mobile phone...

Turn the phone off and pop it in the glove box when driving. It's a blessed relief to not be on call to the poxy thing for a while every day. Anybody texting behind the wheel should be made drive slowly over their device by the side of the road. And them clean it up. Insurance companies should be notified that they did it deliberately so they've to pay full whack for a new one.

Tossers.

Cabaal

moc moc a moc wrote: »

How do you text with bluetooth?

Very easily, on Android
Say ok Google, text Joe bloggs
Then say your message and it'll ask if you want to send it or change it.

Very very easy, but yet we still see idiots texting while driving

Payton

It amazes me the the amount of people driving new cars that should be connected to the cars Bluetooth yet still hold the phone to their ear while driving!

colm_mcm

Shur wasn't it supposed to be a €2000 fine in Ireland?

From coming into effect of the regulations, they will be subject to the general penalty under section 102 of the Road Traffic Act 1961, as amended. This means that cases will come to court and, if convicted, the penalty will be:

€1,000 maximum fine for a first offence
€2,000 maximum fine for a second or subsequent offence
€2,000 maximum fine and/or up to three months in prison for a third or subsequent offence within a twelve month period.

bazz26

You would imagine there is technology there to block sending/receiving mobile texts while in a vehicle.

colm_mcm

What about passengers, or people on public transport though?

bazz26

Public transport is different in that you are not doing the driving so no need for it. I'd also quite happily go with my passengers while in my car not being able to text the same way you didn't text before it was invented.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I'm always amazed to see professional drivers - taxi, bus, van, lorry etc - using mobiles while driving. If you are driving all day then get a handfree, Bluetooth or whatever but don't risk losing your licence by using a phone, like you seem to do almost all day.

The biggest problem though boils down to lack of enforcement. It's a joke in this country. Some great laws and no enforcement worth talking about.

the_pen_turner

10 points on your licence . 3 months community service and 2000 Euro fine would stop a lot of it. Of course the guards would bed to do their job throw

Atlantic Dawn

Much safer in a car with someone legally drunk driving it than someone texting and driving...

Several studies have attempted to compare the dangers of texting while driving with driving under the influence. One such study was conducted by Car and Driver magazine in June 2009.[14] The study, carried out at the Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport in Oscoda, Michigan, used two drivers in real cars and measured reaction times to the onset of light on the windshield. The study compared the reaction times and distances of the subjects while reading a text message, replying to the text message, and impaired. The study showed that at 35 mph (56 km/h), reading a text message decreased the reaction time the most, 0.12 and 0.87 seconds. Impaired driving at the same speed resulted in an increase of 0.01 and 0.07 seconds. In terms of stopping distances these times were estimated to mean:

Unimpaired: 0.54 seconds to brake
Legally drunk: add 4 feet (1.2 m)
Reading e-mail: add 36 feet (11 m)
Sending a text: add 70 feet (21 m)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texting_while_driving

Comhrá

the_pen_turner wrote: »

10 points on your licence . 3 months community service and 2000 Euro fine would stop a lot of it. Of course the guards would bed to do their job throw

.....and maybe a compulsory course in how to use predictive texting?

Henry Ford III

Hands free texting is easy.

Irish Steve

Mandatory disqualification from driving, as well as a significant number of penalty points, with a longer period for "professional" drivers, maybe if that was the minimum, and there was some effective enforcement, people might get the message.

Nothing frightens me more than to be on a narrow county lane and see a 32 tonne artic coming towards me and realise that the driver has his phone clamped to one ear, or worse, in front of his face as he's texting, it should be mandatory for all commercial vehicles and taxis to have bluetooth installed and operational at every test.

Guy:Incognito

moc moc a moc wrote: »

How do you text with bluetooth?

The most noticable people using phone are on calls. At the very least if you actually enforce laws against people using the phone, it might reduce the ones slyly txting . At the minute people are blatantly driving around with phones to their ears, so obviously people have no expectation of being caught.

Special Circumstances

Met a good few drivers today I could only see the top of their head facing out to the windscreen they were so absorbed in whatever was going on in phone land. One well over a solid white line.

That and cutting corners as if they were entitled to the full width of the road were the two most ignorant driving fails I saw this weekend.

CreepingDeath

I won't go near Tesco anymore.
Had a consistent predictable commute and Tesco petrol rarely got me 600km on full tank.
Applegreen gave me at least another 50-100km.

My wife was an internet shopping manager at Tesco and the drivers there cursed Tesco fuel too.

Comhrá

I'm amazed - well not really - at the amount of drivers at around 5-6pm driving home from work, stopped at traffic lights, all heads down checking phones, texting or whatever.

Has anyone ever been done for using their phones while stopped at the lights, or does the law only apply to holding the phone while the driver's vehicle is actually in motion?

Del2005

tippman1 wrote: »

Has anyone ever been done for using their phones while stopped at the lights, or does the law only apply to holding the phone while the driver's vehicle is actually in motion?

No one has been done which is why everyone does it. Doesn't matter if stopped at lights or driving the offence is the same, enforcement is the issue.

nice_guy80

What about yer man on the motorway reading a book?

tippman1

tippman1 wrote: »

I'm amazed - well not really - at the amount of drivers at around 5-6pm driving home from work, stopped at traffic lights, all heads down checking phones, texting or whatever.

Has anyone ever been done for using their phones while stopped at the lights, or does the law only apply to holding the phone while the driver's vehicle is actually in motion?

What's wrong with checking your phone when stopped, ridiculous the fact that you can be done for it.

Comhrá

Brayson Grumpy Gristle wrote: »

What's wrong with checking your phone when stopped, ridiculous the fact that you can be done for it.

When you fail to notice the traffic in front has moved on while you're finishing off your text. That really annoys the folks right behind you. I see this carry-on every day at the traffic lights at Ivan's Cross in Limerick, especially at the evening commute times.

goz83

tippman1 wrote: »

When you fail to notice the traffic in front has moved on while you're finishing off your text. That really annoys the folks right behind you. I see this carry-on every day at the traffic lights at Ivan's Cross in Limerick, especially at the evening commute times.

+1

So annoying and so common nowadays. Phones being held below the steering wheel mostly, texting away no doubt, or catching pokemons!

H3llR4iser

Good, but the problem lays elsewhere; They can up the penalty to the chopping off of genitalia, it still won't do anything - people are tethered to their stupid "smart"phones, and suffer from separation anxiety to the point of getting physically sick. Look at what's happening with the Note 7 recall, only about 13% of the buyers actually returned the phone. They prefer risking a 1000c fire in their pocket (or near their head) rather than being without their beloved phone for a couple of weeks.

If it wasn't real, it'd be a situation out of South Park, with one of the adults in the show telling his/her son "you have an addiction" while laying in a bed of discarded beer cans

Summer wind

It's both shocking and frightening when you see the amount of people looking at or talking on phones while driving. There's no enforcement of the law regarding mobiles in my area.