Mobile Phones and Driving.

[Murray 17]

Would it be OK for a witness with dashcam evidence to pursue a driver , force them to stop and then carry out a citizen arrest ?

Edna will know more, but I believe you are only allowed to make a citizen's arrest for more serious crimes. Not that I don't agree that something has to be done about it.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Should also Ban changing CDs
Changing Radio Stations
Drinking a coffee
Eating
Smoking
Would have thought Driving without due care and attention would cover that ?

 

[edna krabappel]

Edna will know more, but I believe you are only allowed to make a citizen's arrest for more serious crimes. Not that I don't agree that something has to be done about it.

Any arrest, whether by the police or the public is supposed to be justifiable under the circumstances. In the case of a car, it may well be deemed that to force it to stop under those circumstances would not be justifiable, when you already have footage and presumably could give the police the relevant identifying details so as to deal with the owner in due course.

If you saw a car weaving all over the road, on the other hand, and suspected the driver to be pissed as a fart, then you would, I'd suggest, have reasonable grounds to try and grab the keys off the driver if a safe opportunity arose (that happens a fair bit), due to the prolonged risk to others.

There's no black & white really, it all depends on the circumstances. Your phone user could well be nearly injuring people himself (though presumably the risk would be temporary compared to a drunk driver).

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Myself would go something like 28 day ban,victim surcharge to a charity and not HM Government say £500. No Fine. Points don't know about that. Stop pussy footing around and hit hard.

 

[edna krabappel]

What about other offences?
I have a dash cam installed, what about if a car overtook me and in doing so clearly crossed a double-white line on the centre of the road. Or maybe some other careless or reckless driving.
Is there a Crimestoppers email I could send my footage into for the police to follow up and prosecute, or are they just too busy?

I would assume West Mercia Police would have some sort of non-emergency contact via email that you could send that to. It happens.

That lorry driver who infamously overtook somebody by offsiding a roundabout in Turners Hill? He got prosecuted because the footage was sent to Sussex Police. He had to be interviewed and the job sent to the CPS for a decision first, it's not simply a case of the footage covering everything, but, you know, they do sometimes get dealt with


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...Britain-s-dangerous-roundabout-wrong-way.html

 

[GT49er]

Except that is a completely different as has been shown by a number of scientific studies. It is not the holding the phone that makes it dangerous (although it obviously is if you're using both hands, texting, etc.). It is trying to have a conversation with someone who is not present.

A normal conversation involves visual contact as well as verbal - we nod, look to see how our message is being received, all sorts of body language is involved. Just as distracting as talking on a hands-free mobile, especially if the passenger is in the back seat! I notice the Independent's oh so thorough article only compared mobile phone conversations with no conversation at all, and did not include face to face conversations in the survey for comparison.

You're not going to have the same trouble straining to hear people in the car, and most importantly people in the car are aware of the situation you're in, and if, for example, you're tackling a particularly busy junction or overtaking they'll be quiet for a minute if they have an sense.

Yes. A mitigating factor for conversations with real passengers. Assuming of course that they're not too thick to shut up (some people are that thick!), or they're not children who don't understand the need to shut up (or even just non-drivers who don't have much of a clue about what driving involves).

Eating and drinking are a bit of a grey area. You can easily have a sip from a bottle of water or take a sweet out of a bag without taking your eyes off the road.

Very true. Of course you can do these things safely - not even a grey area really.

 

[SAC]

Why not just hire 5-10 road traffic police bikers to patrol the city?
They'd make the salary cost up by on the spot fines.

Possibly a nice idea but the cost would be against the police budget and the fines would go to the government.

 

[StonehamPark]

Possibly a nice idea but the cost would be against the police budget and the fines would go to the government.

Whichever Gov branch collects the fine cash can pump it back into the local police forces though.
Doesn't take much to sort that out between the Gov and local 5/0.

Should pay for itself, puts a few more police 'on the streets'. Acts as a deterrent for anti-social or dangerous driving.

I'll happily volunteer.
Even better if we could be plain-clothed on our own bikes.

 

[Alba Badger]

So opinion, are hands free calls ok?

I have to make and take them for work. They don;t force us but in my line of work you'd be f%^ked if you just ignored them till you were out the car. I put my phone in the boot, still works on hands free but i'm not tempted to look at it.

I take calls but try and avoid making them unless in grid lock.

 

[edna krabappel]

Why not just hire 5-10 road traffic police bikers to patrol the city?
They'd make the salary cost up by on the spot fines.

Fines don't go to the police (and the emphasis these days is on education, i.e. sending people on diversion courses, rather than simply fining everyone who gets caught).

Road policing budgets have been cut hugely in recent years (as have all police budgets, in fact). Sussex has considerably fewer officers across the board than was the case even five years ago, due to austerity and Mrs May's reforms. Time will tell if this has an impact in terms of (a) motoring offences and (b) collisions, especially those involving serious injury or death.

 

[Bwian]

If you are in a long traffic jam and have been stationary for some time then I don't have a problem if people use their phones sensibly, i.e. a quick text or call to inform a friend / family of your delay.

Similarly, I don't have a problem if the lights have just turned red and someone quickly checks their messages.

Indeed, commons sense tells me it would be perverse if a driver was punished more severely for checking their phone while their car is on the road but stationary than, say, a driver who is moving and eating a sandwich or drinking out of a can.

However, using your phone while the car is moving clearly crosses the line.

The problem with your examples is that people will always push the boundaries . Let them check messages at a red light will turn into replying and missing the green light. I see it every single day and the worst offenders for checking messages/Facebook etc., are females, 20/30 somethings with foul mouths when you tell them to focus on their driving. Speaking on phones seems to be a male preference and that's all we hear about.

Hands free only, no texting, no checking facebook, twitter, emails, etc. Penalty should be as harsh as impaired driving in my opinion. Too often I see people on motorways driving at 70 or 80 mph looking into their fecking laps checking their phones. Reckless cvunts.

 

[Pickles]

Compulsory In-car signal blocking device for every vehicle unless the ignition is off.

That's an interesting one because I got caught using my moblie whilst my van was pulled to one side, safely, on an industrial estate in Southampton a few years back.

However, the copper said to me that because I was on a road and with my engine running, it was the same as driving, because I had control of the vehicle.

I took offence to that and said I'll be given the same punishment as someone that was doing 70 on a motorway using the phone.

Anyhow, I took the £100 fine and 3 points and to be to honest, it was a good lesson to learn, with hindsight.

Never done it since, stationary with engine idling, or at 70.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Cycling through Brighton past a convertible driver moving slowly in traffic and talking on his phone, it did flash through my mind to reach in, yank it out of the ****'s hand and lob it into the roadside hedgerow. Fortunately I'd successfully completed my anger management course by then and simply smashed his wing mirror with a single swing of my D-lock (disclaimer - that last bit might not have actually happened)

 

[Mannakin]

My office is near Heathrow. I don't travel every day but when I do go to the office I'm on my motorbike and I have a helmet video camera. If I had a pound for everyone I spotted on the phone I wouldn't need a job. Maybe I ought to send a typical day's viewing to the police?!

 

[Bwian]

In Ontario I seem to remember there used to be a law that if you'd been to the Beer or Liquor Store, whatever you bought had to be out of the reach of the driver. I can't remember if the ticket was like a minor impaired driving charge but it meant that the temptation was removed. Maybe phones should be treated the same way-out of reach of the driver?

 

[LlcoolJ]

In Ontario I seem to remember there used to be a law that if you'd been to the Beer or Liquor Store, whatever you bought had to be out of the reach of the driver. I can't remember if the ticket was like a minor impaired driving charge but it meant that the temptation was removed. Maybe phones should be treated the same way-out of reach of the driver?

That's a hilarious law.

 

[edna krabappel]

That's a hilarious law.

Similar with certain US states (Florida I think being one). You can't have an open container of alcohol inside the car. It has to go in the boot.

 

[Gazwag]

Cycling through Brighton past a convertible driver moving slowly in traffic and talking on his phone, it did flash through my mind to reach in, yank it out of the ****'s hand and lob it into the roadside hedgerow. Fortunately I'd successfully completed my anger management course by then and simply smashed his wing mirror with a single swing of my D-lock (disclaimer - that last bit might not have actually happened)

That just reminder me on something that happen outside of my office last week. Its a one way street and during the course of the day one maybe two car come up the wrong way. Last week this dick was driving up the wrong way on his phone talking so loudly everybody could hear him. He say "people are flashing me, I don't know why" 3 seconds later "oh somebody just shouted I'm going the wrong way, gotta go speak to you later"

 

[Bwian]

Similar with certain US states (Florida I think being one). You can't have an open container of alcohol inside the car. It has to go in the boot.

Makes perfect sense-especially these days with so many idiots out there (all ages and gender).

 

[wellquickwoody]

It won't happen, because there could, feasibly, be a time when somebody genuinely did need to dial 999 whilst they were driving.

Also, presumably such technology would impact on passengers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending these people. It's a bugbear of mine (handy, that). But I've yet to hear of a practical technological application that would prevent the drivers using their phones under normal circumstances.

What happened before mobiles if someone genuinely NEEDED to call 999?