Rear ended by truck & phone users
Discussion
Got rear ended by an 18ton tipper truck during the week 
luckily I was driving for work in an equally heavy truck so no apparent injury to me thankfully. I'm pretty sure the driver was on his phone which in this day and age is less frequently observed in trucks due to cab monitoring. As it happens it was the drivers first day on the job and probably his last too, his truck had driver facing cameras.
Something I frequently comment on is the astonishing number of drivers in their phones especially on the motorways. We need a licence cull out there.
luckily I was driving for work in an equally heavy truck so no apparent injury to me thankfully. I'm pretty sure the driver was on his phone which in this day and age is less frequently observed in trucks due to cab monitoring. As it happens it was the drivers first day on the job and probably his last too, his truck had driver facing cameras.Something I frequently comment on is the astonishing number of drivers in their phones especially on the motorways. We need a licence cull out there.
Are you surprised? We live in a society that for some, being connected 24/7 has become an addiction and putting a screen down is nigh on impossible. I drive a lot with work and the amount of information that I'm bombarded with via my company phone whilst driving is ridiculous. Even taking a call can be extremely distracting. Add in an increase in traffic, people in a rush to be places and it's no surprise that phones are factor in lots of crashes.
I'm currently trying to educate my kids to cross toads at crossings safely and the main thing is say is even if the green man is showing, never assume cars will stop... this was promoted by a near miss where a mum and her two kids were nearly mowed down at the crossing by a woman who "didn't see them" Probably draw your own conclusions from that.
She wasn't in an SUV...
I'm currently trying to educate my kids to cross toads at crossings safely and the main thing is say is even if the green man is showing, never assume cars will stop... this was promoted by a near miss where a mum and her two kids were nearly mowed down at the crossing by a woman who "didn't see them" Probably draw your own conclusions from that.
She wasn't in an SUV...
It is a problem and having the penalty increased from 3 points to 6 shows that the law doesn't like it. I would advocate a short ban too - say 30 or 60 days. Enough to cause an inconvenience to the driver in the short term.
You do have to wonder about the mentality of drivers when most vehicles have bluetooth.
There's no figures, but when I see a single vehicle accident on the roads, I do wonder if a mobile was involved, especially when the driver says something stupid such as the brakes failing or the car swerved.
You do have to wonder about the mentality of drivers when most vehicles have bluetooth.
There's no figures, but when I see a single vehicle accident on the roads, I do wonder if a mobile was involved, especially when the driver says something stupid such as the brakes failing or the car swerved.
It's astonishing.
Saw a chap in an Amarok the other day with his phone fully in front of his face. The road ahead must have been in his peripheral vision.
The other week, as we crawled towards an island on a dual carriageway, I flashed a van over to my lane as he had his indicator on. No reaction. Tried a few more times and gave up.
Sure enough, as I drew up alongside him, he was looking down at the phone on his lap. I gestured for him to wind his window down and shouted that his indicator was on, for which he was thankful. He then looked at me mortally offended when I shouted 'maybe lay off the phone?'.
I honestly don't understand it. My phone connects to both cars. So I'll answer a call if it comes in on handsfree. But I ignore any messages.
I even managed to train the kids to call me if I was picking them up from school. No point Whatsapping me if you know I'm driving to you, is there?! But I think that's the issue - everyone DMs rather than calls these days and people seem to think it can't wait until they've pulled up.
Saw a chap in an Amarok the other day with his phone fully in front of his face. The road ahead must have been in his peripheral vision.
The other week, as we crawled towards an island on a dual carriageway, I flashed a van over to my lane as he had his indicator on. No reaction. Tried a few more times and gave up.
Sure enough, as I drew up alongside him, he was looking down at the phone on his lap. I gestured for him to wind his window down and shouted that his indicator was on, for which he was thankful. He then looked at me mortally offended when I shouted 'maybe lay off the phone?'.
I honestly don't understand it. My phone connects to both cars. So I'll answer a call if it comes in on handsfree. But I ignore any messages.
I even managed to train the kids to call me if I was picking them up from school. No point Whatsapping me if you know I'm driving to you, is there?! But I think that's the issue - everyone DMs rather than calls these days and people seem to think it can't wait until they've pulled up.
The IAM had a recent email survey on the use of smart watches as phones. The legislation has not caught up with these yet. I haven't set mine up as independent to a phone yet, but calls to a smartphone automatically route through the cars system. Having said that I rarely get calls anyway, and ignore them if I do.
As others have said the amount of people that just use their phone constantly while driving or have it in their face is un real.
I love the fact that people put it on loud speaker and still hold it up - Still on the phone you sausage. Especially when they have car play / bluetooth in their new Audi 4x4
I love the fact that people put it on loud speaker and still hold it up - Still on the phone you sausage. Especially when they have car play / bluetooth in their new Audi 4x4
The other week whilst at one of my bootcamp sessions there was a car crash on the relatively straight road adjacent to the park we were on, the car that crashed had hit a parked car on its side of the road and ended up on the opposite side of the road, we didn't see the crash but heard it.
Anyway upon one of us opening the drivers door to check the driver was ok, I noticed his mobile was flat, face down on top of the steering binnacle, I'm convinced he was watching something on it just before crashing.
Anyway upon one of us opening the drivers door to check the driver was ok, I noticed his mobile was flat, face down on top of the steering binnacle, I'm convinced he was watching something on it just before crashing.
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