Car, Phone - idea for punishment

[Snowboy]

If so done is caught/convicted of using the phone while driving I think their phone should be confiscated for 14 days and their answer phone changed to;
"The owner of this phone has been convicted of using their phone while driving and the phone has been disabled for 14 days. There are X days remaining."

I wonder if that would be a stronger deterrent?

(Yes, I know it'll need some work to decide exactly when it can be taken, and a way to stop sim swaps. )

[Jonny_]

You can buy a new PAYG phone for a tenner these days, so I don't think it would be much of a deterrent.

[Mr SFJ]

Or confiscate the phone. And dish out £1000 fines and 6 points. If you can't pay, car gets taken too.

Will need to up the amount of BiB's on the road to enforce it.

[surveyor]

When they ban smoking at the wheel and talking to passengers that's fine.

As it is it's a loony tune law, but one that must be complied with obviously.

[Snowboy]

surveyor said:

When they ban smoking at the wheel and talking to passengers that's fine.

As it is it's a loony tune law, but one that must be complied with obviously.

No, it's a sensible law.
You've perhaps not read some of the studies about how distracting phone use is vs talking in person.

Nor is smoking in any way similar to holding a phone at ones ear.

Smoking and chatting in person are passive activities.
Driving and using a phone are primary activities.

A person can only competently do one primary activity at a time.

[FiF]

Can see where you are coming from but so many ways round it. New throwaway phone new number. Everything diverted to new number in seconds.

There is a way for the authorities to get round / stop that but how are they going to stop a backup copy of all contacts being put on a new sim. Minor inconvenience to tell regular contacts to use the new number for two weeks.

And so on.

Not defending idiots on phones obviously. Like salmon leaping over a weir mostly.

[Dave Hedgehog]

Snowboy said:

surveyor said:

When they ban smoking at the wheel and talking to passengers that's fine.

As it is it's a loony tune law, but one that must be complied with obviously.

No, it's a sensible law.
You've perhaps not read some of the studies about how distracting phone use is vs talking in person.

Nor is smoking in any way similar to holding a phone at ones ear.

Smoking and chatting in person are passive activities.
Driving and using a phone are primary activities.

A person can only competently do one primary activity at a time.

all studies performed / payed for by organisations with an agenda which amazingly all found the results that they where expected too.

[lbc]

Snowboy said:

If so done is caught/convicted of using the phone while driving I think their phone should be confiscated for 14 days and their answer phone changed to...

It's not illegal to use a phone while driving.


Only if you hold it in your hand

[Geekman]

I'd much prefer removing the ridiculous law and simply prosecuting people if whatever they were doing, be it phone use, messing with the radio or talking to passengers was affecting their driving.

[surveyor]

Snowboy said:

surveyor said:

When they ban smoking at the wheel and talking to passengers that's fine.

As it is it's a loony tune law, but one that must be complied with obviously.

No, it's a sensible law.
You've perhaps not read some of the studies about how distracting phone use is vs talking in person.

Nor is smoking in any way similar to holding a phone at ones ear.

Smoking and chatting in person are passive activities.
Driving and using a phone are primary activities.

A person can only competently do one primary activity at a time.

You'll be telling me that speeding is dangerous next, backed by a brake survey.

[wildoliver]

Geekman said:

I'd much prefer removing the ridiculous law and simply prosecuting people if whatever they were doing, be it phone use, messing with the radio or talking to passengers was affecting their driving.

God don't use common sense in here, you'll be burnt at the stake if you dare suggest that not everyone is a moron who can only do one thing at a time.

[Snowboy]

Dave Hedgehog said:

all studies performed / payed for by organisations with an agenda which amazingly all found the results that they where expected too.

Yes.
But, if you can point me to any studies or evidence that shows using a (handheld) phone to have no detrimental impact on driving I'll gladly read it.

I have to say, my personal experience from before the law was created was that using a phone was very distracting.

[Biker 1]

Every time I go for a ride, I see LOTS of people on phones, many of them texting. I'm 100% certain that most of them don't see a motorcycle at all, particularly when texting. I either drop right back or break the speed limit to get past. Its so fking dangerous!!!
At least £1000 fine + 6 points - isn't that how it works on Isle of Man(????)

[Snowboy]

wildoliver said:

God don't use common sense in here, you'll be burnt at the stake if you dare suggest that not everyone is a moron who can only do one thing at a time.

In my experience many people are morons who can barely do one thing at a time.

It is inevitably these people who think they are safe driving and texting.

[grumpy52]

Most numpties using phones illegally don't have a backup plan if they lose their phones, so a proper penalty is to record details of the phone and destroy the thing on the spot , any claims on insurance get checked on a police database.

[Magic919]

Would be more effective to confiscate the car.

[PAULJ5555]

Just make the fine £1000

[SK425]

Snowboy said:

I have to say, my personal experience from before the law was created was that using a phone was very distracting.

That's interesting. I certainly wouldn't dispute that it's possible to allow yourself to become very distracted, but my experience from before and after the law (bearing mind that phone calls are not banned, only holding the phone is) is that the task of choosing when and when not to have a phone conversation while driving and managing the distraction it creates is not at all challenging. Neither, before the law changed, was the task of choosing when was and was not a good time to occupy a hand with holding a phone.

[Andehh]

Am i the only one here who says £100 but no fine?

If you can smoke, apply make up, eat, drink, programme your satnav and shout at your kids without fear of punishments, then is chatting on a phone really end of the world? Before the ban, when I approached a junction I just told them wait a second I need both hands and put the phone in my lap.

If I was not of the persuasion of putting my phone down and I ran over the roundabout then do me for not concentrating!

[singlecoil]

To be fair, anyone who wants to compare hand-held phone use to something else needs to find something else that involves holding an object to the side of the head for a period of time between a few seconds and maybe a quarter of an hour or so. Smoking, for instance (unless one is smoking a pipe through the ear) doesn't count.