Van guy on phone. What would you do?

Gen.Zhukov

I captured a really dangerous move by a van driver messing with his phone, on my dash cam. He had a LH bend. He drifted right, completely across the white line on to my side before realising and pulled back to the left.

I'd say he got a serious fright and put the phone down soon after. That fright will wear off though and I'd say he'll be back at it soon enough.

It's my pet hate. It really pisses me off.
I'm conflicted what to do. The livery on the van is very distinctive and tracing him wouldn't be a problem (his company prob have 6-10 vans in Dub and prob with trackers)

I'd like him to get pulled up on this. I wouldn't like to see him losing job or anything that serious.

It was pure luck that nobody was on my side of the road at the time.

Pic is a still of the vid enlarged so quality is bad but the video clip is good. He is circled in red just before starting to pull left.

moby2101

Similar story to yours OP.
Last week I was pulling out of a petrol station to turn left , one of these exits that specifies no entry exit only ..as I prepared to turn left I just saw out of the corner of my eye the artic truck and 40ft trailer that was across the road a second or two ago had swung across and was coming in on top of me, driver on the phone , if I had stayed (about 6 inch s nose out on to the road, as the road was clear on my side) the first set of wheels on the trailer would have crushed me, had to reverse out of his way blowing the horn the whole time,
I was livid , parked up the car and tore Over to the truck, I fcuked him out of it. He gets out with a lot of attitude “ what’s your fffing problem . Lots of name calling on both sides. Told him I had the whole thing on dashcam , him on the phone swinging the steering wheel of the truck one handed no indication coming for me. He became a different chap all of a sudden. I told him him I was reporting him to the Gardai which I did .
they now have the footage, they arrived at the station before he left and interviewed him. Showed the gard the footage on the cam before he took the card , he said he will definitely be charged.
It’s so dangerous. A handsfree set-is so bloody cheap.

Report him OP

It’s clowns like these in cars vans trucks that are going to cause accidents and kill people

Riesen_Meal

This is a tough one OP, if you report the guy, he will most likely get the bullet from his job, no one knows the circumstances as to what was going on...

Yes, obviously I don't agree with what he did, but who knows what was going on at that time, he could have had a call telling him his father had died or some other family emergency...

Luckily no one was hurt and that's the main thing...

Not sure what I would do, sure I've a lot of near misses on my dashcam and honestly, the only time I really consulted it for footage was when some chap did an amazing cartwheel across the road when I was sitting in traffic...

Mull it over and sleep on it...

OldMrBrennan83

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DaveyDave

Fieldog wrote: »

This is a tough one OP, if you report the guy, he will most likely get the bullet from his job, no one knows the circumstances as to what was going on...

Yes, obviously I don't agree with what he did, but who knows what was going on at that time, he could have had a call telling him his father had died or some other family emergency...

Luckily no one was hurt and that's the main thing...

Not sure what I would do, sure I've a lot of near misses on my dashcam and honestly, the only time I really consulted it for footage was when some chap did an amazing cartwheel across the road when I was sitting in traffic...

Mull it over and sleep on it...

He shouldn't be driving a company van if he can't adhere to the rules of the road. All he had to do was pull over and take the call legally and safely. If he has a tracker he'd ring the boss after to let him know about the delay. I'm sure it's in his contract to not break the law.

We've banned a hauliage driver from our site at work for being on the phone. His boss wasn't too impressed.

emo72

Sit on any corner and observe the amount of people on phones. It's an epidemic. It's out of control. There is no enforcement. Why is anyone surprised at this?

Conservatory

Are traffic deaths up since the introduction of Facebook on your phone or is this just hysteria?

Cars used to actually have phones in them.

Mech1

You should report, you might find it was his boss on the phone to him, moaning that he was late for a delivery, not exactly the drivers fault if the boss doesnt supply drivers with the legal kit.

Riesen_Meal

Mech1 wrote: »

You should report, you might find it was his boss on the phone to him, moaning that he was late for a delivery, not exactly the drivers fault if the boss doesnt supply drivers with the legal kit.

Could also be something along them lines even...

I get that also - some lads in these jobs get feck all other than the van to do their job, some even have to shell out phone credit from their own pockets, obviously they should take precautions or pull over somewhere and take the call...

Gen.Zhukov

He wasn't actually talking on the phone. It was the typical right hand on top centre of steering wheel and left arm down with the nodding head.

So he was reading/sending text or mail,
checking in on social media or similar.

It might even be work related in which case they can ask the question 'Should we be sending mails to staff when they may be driving'.

I think I'll call the company and play it by ear to see what way it pans out.
Re the post about 'not being surprised'. I'm not. I see the f-wits at it all the time it's just in this case it was to a seriously dangerous level and as it's a marked van, I have the ability to do something.

At least the company might consider re-educating some of their staff.

Effects

Conservatory wrote: »

Are traffic deaths up since the introduction of Facebook on your phone or is this just hysteria?

Cars used to actually have phones in them.

And they used to not have seat belts too.

Fann Linn

Gen.Zhukov wrote: »

I captured a really dangerous move by a van driver messing with his phone, on my dash cam. He had a LH bend. He drifted right, completely across the white line on to my side before realising and pulled back to the left.

I'd say he got a serious fright and put the phone down soon after. That fright will wear off though and I'd say he'll be back at it soon enough.

It's my pet hate. It really pisses me off.
I'm conflicted what to do. The livery on the van is very distinctive and tracing him wouldn't be a problem (his company prob have 6-10 vans in Dub and prob with trackers)

I'd like him to get pulled up on this. I wouldn't like to see him losing job or anything that serious.

It was pure luck that nobody was on my side of the road at the time.

Pic is a still of the vid enlarged so quality is bad but the video clip is good. He is circled in red just before starting to pull left.

I would hope that if you're going to report him to his boss that you also send in a copy of the video. As a van driver I must admit that there is nothing worse than anonymous complaints going into head office with no further info attached.

Provide the evidence.

Conservatory

Effects wrote: »

And they used to not have seat belts too.

Yeah but if you look at the numbers road deaths are a fraction of what they used to be and yet now everybody drives around on the Facebook. Is this just a scare tactic to sell hands free kits?

dense

Conservatory wrote: »

Are traffic deaths up since the introduction of Facebook on your phone or is this just hysteria?

Cars used to actually have phones in them.

I'm along the same lines, but, you do see an awful lot of youngsters looking down at their laps at phones nowadays.



Don't see much of a problem talking into a handheld phone though, people with all sorts of challenging disabilities drive cars nowadays without coming a cropper.



The stats would be interesting for pure phone call use.

acai berry

Fieldog wrote: »

This is a tough one OP, if you report the guy, he will most likely get the bullet from his job, no one knows the circumstances as to what was going on...

Yes, obviously I don't agree with what he did, but who knows what was going on at that time, he could have had a call telling him his father had died or some other family emergency...

Luckily no one was hurt and that's the main thing...

Not sure what I would do, sure I've a lot of near misses on my dashcam and honestly, the only time I really consulted it for footage was when some chap did an amazing cartwheel across the road when I was sitting in traffic...

Mull it over and sleep on it...

Ridiculous argument, IMO!

acai berry

I was enraged one time, seeing a woman on a busy roundabout, with several lanes, holding her phone up and talking into it, as she negotiated the roundabout in heavy traffic. There was nothing I could do about it at the time, as I had to negotiate the roundabout myself and went a different direction.

Let's face it, there are far too many deaths on our roads and everything should be done to avoid even one.

the_syco

Fieldog wrote: »

Yes, obviously I don't agree with what he did, but who knows what was going on at that time, he could have had a call telling him his father had died or some other family emergency...

Yet if you don't report him, the Gardai could be calling someones family to say that the van driver just wiped out someone else!

Conservatory wrote: »

Cars used to actually have phones in them.

Most cars that had phones in them were the very expensive type.

Effects

Conservatory wrote: »

Yeah but if you look at the numbers road deaths are a fraction of what they used to be and yet now everybody drives around on the Facebook. Is this just a scare tactic to sell hands free kits?

It’s just Facebook.
I had a woman on her phone run a red light and nearly knock me down.
I’ve a friend who rollled into the back of another car when she was checking her Facebook.

Effects

the_syco wrote: »

Yet if you don't report him, the Gardai could be calling someones family to say that the van driver just wiped out someone else!


Most cars that had phones in them were the very expensive type.

My dads Nissan Bluebird and Ford Sierra both had phones so not just expensive ones.

Wailin

I actually passed a guy driving on the M50 who had his phone STRAPPED to his steering wheel landscape style with a movie playing a few weeks ago. I was gobsmacked.

OldMrBrennan83

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wexie

Conservatory wrote: »

Cars used to actually have phones in them.

Personally I find it shocking to see how many times you see people with the phone up to their ear in a car that's only a few years old and more likely than not has factory fitted bluetooth...


I mean what kinda halfwit does that?

harr

Seen a lad get caught yesterday trying to navigate a set of roundabouts in an artic all while trying to read something on his phone he was all over the shop. He spotted the armed response jeep behind me and dropped phone when he did see them but it was to late ...wasn’t to sure if they would have stooped him being an armed unit but sure enough lights on and tore out after him..
The amount of professional drivers you see on the phone is mad and I have seen people drift a considerable amount over the middle of the road while on the phone and the problem does seem to getting worse..

tcawley29

wexie wrote: »

Personally I find it shocking to see how many times you see people with the phone up to their ear in a car that's only a few years old and more likely than not has factory fitted bluetooth...


I mean what kinda halfwit does that?

Sometimes people do that if they have other people in the car that they do not want them to hear the conversation. Still doesn't make it the right thing to do though. They should either pull over or call the person back when they get home.

Lord Nikon

Bluetooth headsets are almost free these days, coming in the box with the phone. Any company that hires are driver should supply some sort of hands-free kit or similar. Anyone who is obviously on their phone, and almost causes an incident is entitled to a boliking.