To the driver of the blue lorry

[Tiddlypom]

To the male driver of the large, metallic blue horsebox driving along Hospital Street in Nantwich today at 1.30pm, and turning left at the mini roundabout by Morrisons. Do not drive with your phone clamped to your ear, not ever, but especially not in a busy town centre approaching a pedestrian crossing where son no 1 is about to cross the road, whilst I watch in my rear view mirror, having just dropped him off.

You are a prat and a dick. Your personalised reg number was something like C2 OEO (may have got that wrong).

That is all.

 

[JillA]

Well said - pity you didn't get his full registration no and let the police know

 

[Tiddlypom]

I was reciting his number to myself, but by the time I pulled over and went to write it down, I wasn't sure of it anymore. Drat. He needs reporting.

 

[Landcruiser]

I see this SO often! Daily. Lots of tractors towing huge trailers round here, and you'd think a phone to the ear was compulsory. It makes my blood boil!

 

[Iownayetti]

Have you got a local horsey Facebook page OP?
I use my local page to report rude riders and they usually slither out from under their stones and make excuses !

 

[webble]

what an idiot - put it on the cheshire horse forum and local fb page

 

[minesadouble]

OK am going to be VERY controversial here BUT! Yes it's illegal, however it is not (yet) illegal to smoke while you're driving OR to drive with one hand on the steering wheel (most people I know, and I include myself in this) have one hand on the steering wheel more often than two.
Neither is it illegal to chat to a passenger whilst driving. The difference between chatting on your phone and chatting to a passenger being that you will, from time to time, make eye contact with your passenger (thereby taking your eyes from the road).
Yes it is illegal and no one should be doing it but in the real world I think chatting to someone in your passenger seat absorbs your attention more than chatting to someone on your mobile.
I am not putting on my tin hat and running as I think it is a valid viewpoint!!

 

[asmp]

Next time, lick your finger and 'write' the number plate on your windscreen (unless of course, your windscreen is immaculately clean!). You should be able to read it when you stop.

 

[*hic*]

I have another controversial viewpoint: somewhere there's no doubt someone having a good old rant about the idiot who dropped her child off and then drove up the road with her gaze entirely fixed in the rear view mirror!


minesadouble - the number of pairs of eyes is doubled though!

 

[View]

OK am going to be VERY controversial here BUT! Yes it's illegal, however it is not (yet) illegal to smoke while you're driving OR to drive with one hand on the steering wheel (most people I know, and I include myself in this) have one hand on the steering wheel more often than two.
Neither is it illegal to chat to a passenger whilst driving. The difference between chatting on your phone and chatting to a passenger being that you will, from time to time, make eye contact with your passenger (thereby taking your eyes from the road).
Yes it is illegal and no one should be doing it but in the real world I think chatting to someone in your passenger seat absorbs your attention more than chatting to someone on your mobile.
I am not putting on my tin hat and running as I think it is a valid viewpoint!!

OK, I'm going to bite.

If it's a company vehicle, I'm led to believe that it is illegal to smoke in it, whether passenger or driver. And as smoking involves a heat source, dangerous in a vehicle anyway - never mind the idiots who just throw the stub out of the window with no regard for where it may land.

And should driving with one hand contribute to an incident or attract the attention if the all too scarce traffic officer, points on your licence (so a conviction) may well follow.

The difference between chatting to a passenger and chatting on a phone is that the passenger can see situations developing and may well, actually should, stop talking to allow you to concentrate as necessary.

And I can ignore crying children in a car - that's a well developed skill for anyone with a PCV licence

But there is just no excuse for any driver to be going around with a phone clamped to their ear. So dangerous.

Edited to remove the flipping iPad "corrections"

 

[minesadouble]

In the vast majority of situations you can manage perfectly well with one hand on the wheel since the advent of power steering.
As regards the passsenger situation it is not the passenger's duty to keep an eye on the road and one certainly cannot count on a passenger keeping an eye out for you. I don't imagine the person driving the Horsebox was in a company vehicle (though I accept this is a possibility, though were it the case I imagine the haulier's name would be emblazoned along the side of the vehicle).
Jemima*askin my friend's husband ran into the back of someone just last week because he was too busy looking in his rear view mirror to watch the road!
I would rather be in the car with a good driver talking on a mobile than a bad driver with two hands on the wheel and all of his/her attention on the road. Believe me there are plenty of crap drivers where I live, I often think that some must have bought their test certificates off EBay!

 

[Tiddlypom]

I have another controversial viewpoint: somewhere there's no doubt someone having a good old rant about the idiot who dropped her child off and then drove up the road with her gaze entirely fixed in the rear view mirror!


minesadouble - the number of pairs of eyes is doubled though!

Thanks, but I was still parked at the side of the road .

Mineadouble, personally I continue to look at the road ahead, rather than my passenger, when chatting to them. I do not need to keep glancing sideways at them! I also drive with two hands on the wheel except when changing gear, using indicators etc. Isn't that normal?

I find that people who clamp their phone to their ear, are utterly unable to concentrate on anything else, whether they are drivers, pedestrians or pushing their supermarket trolley.

Agree that I should post this on a Facebook page, but alas I am not a Faceache user.

 

[paulineh]

We have idiot down our lane that feel they can not move an inch in their car without having that phone glued to the ear.

The lane is busy with lorries and cars and horses up and down all day long.

It only takes that split second and there could be a nasty accident. Yes there are other things that could cause the accident, looking for the fags, lighting that fag, brushing/combing ones hair or for women putting make up on. Drinking water or that cup of coffee, but these things are not illegal where as talking on a mobile phone is.

I have a hands free kit but try not to answer or make a call on my phone if I can help it.

 

[Magnetic Sparrow]

There was a case a few years ago of a woman who was fined for eating an apple while driving. I think you can be nicked for any activity that diverts you from paying proper attention to your driving.

I regularly see a woman near where I keep my horse driving with her dog on her lap. Sometimes the dog also jumps around on her lap trying to stick its head out of the window. I wonder if that's legal? It doesn't seem safe!

 

[ROG]

Its not the fact that one hand is off the wheel and holding the phone its the distraction which also applies to hands free but the law makes decided it was too hard to get prosecutions for that so they let that bit slide and just made hand held illegal = NUPMTIES !

Many other things can also be distractions if the driver lets them be so

Listening to the radio can be a distraction but most drivers can let that slide into the back ground - like road noise

Passengers are totally different to those people on the end of a phone - passengers can see and get a feel for the situation the driver is currently in

I say all this with my advanced driver/adviser and LGV instructor hats on

 

[minesadouble]

Don't know how to pick out individual sentences but I don't see many people driving with 2 hands on the wheel to be honest, I rarely do, my husband (who drives almost constantly), doesnt and most people I know don't either. Maybe we are all odd
To be honest I rarely feel the need to drive with 2 hands, only when 'extreme' parking/ steering and the time my power steering failed when I not only needed 2 hands but all my body weight

 

[Tiddlypom]

Two hands on the wheel, at the ten to two position. One handed driving is normal for you? Eek. Scary face. How lazy and slapdash, nothing to be proud of .

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

I say all this with my advanced driver/adviser and LGV instructor hats on

Is there a special hat, I am most impressed
PS after I passed my test, my bf of the time [a police driver] took me out for a few lessons, I never drove at those speeds again [we are talking before 70mph], but I have never had an accident,, and I drive with hands at ten to two/quarter to three. If one hits a pothole or anything both are needed.
I just sat and watched a woman park in front of me today, by the following method:
1] crash in to kerb with front wheel,
2] readjust ten times, including backing in to the van behind!!!!!!
3] get out and check if rear bumper scratched
It all took about five minutes and she was still two feet from the kerb.
Later she was able to pull out, no need for mirror signal manoevre, apparently,

 

[ROG]

Two hands on the wheel, at the ten to two position. One handed driving is normal for you? Eek. Scary face. How lazy and slapdash, nothing to be proud of .

In advanced driving we recommend that both hands are BEST in that position BUT as long as the vehicle is under full control at all times then there is no safety issue
There can be a safe way and a SAFER way

 

[minesadouble]

OK, we all know the rule book as we all passed our tests but really ... Does anyone drive by the rule
book 24/7 - I think not! I have a clean licence and have never had an accident so am obviously not totally reckless

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

Don't know how to pick out individual sentences but I don't see many people driving with 2 hands on the wheel to be honest, I rarely do, my husband (who drives almost constantly), doesnt and most people I know don't either. Maybe we are all odd
To be honest I rarely feel the need to drive with 2 hands, only when 'extreme' parking/ steering and the time my power steering failed when I not only needed 2 hands but all my body weight

Was this not covered in your driving lessons, or in the test? These guidelines are there for a reason ....... my safety as well as yours.

 

[ROG]

I have a clean licence and have never had an accident so am obviously not totally reckless

That does not mean that anyone who has never been caught for anything or hit anything etc is a good safe driver but many think it does


The only way to know if someone is a good safe driver is for them to have their driving assessed over at least 1 hour by someone who knows what they are looking for and I do not mean a driving instructor (ADI) because there remit is to go by the basic DVSA criteria and to be honest that is pants for assessing a generally safe driver

 

[thedunthing]

I quite agree with you ROG, just saying if I was totally 'reckless' it probably would have caught up with me in some way by now! But I struggle to believe that the majority of drivers only take a hand off the wheel to change gear and that driving with one hand on the wheel is dangerous per se?! If that was the case shouldn't we all be driving automatics?
Edited to say posting on my daughter's account without realising so don't jump on her as she currently isn't even driving!!

 

[ROG]

I rarely berate a single driver but generalize so as not to cause offence - if a driver recognizes themselves in what I am saying in general.....

 

[*L&W*]

That does not mean that anyone who has never been caught for anything or hit anything etc is a good safe driver but many think it does


The only way to know if someone is a good safe driver is for them to have their driving assessed over at least 1 hour by someone who knows what they are looking for and I do not mean a driving instructor (ADI) because there remit is to go by the basic DVSA criteria and to be honest that is pants for assessing a generally safe driver

As an ADI I am insulted by your comment.

Why exactly am I not capable of making a decision on whether someone is not a safe driver?
Is it because I expect more than them being "generally safe", but I suppose when they run a child over so long as their "generally safe" then they should be let off?

It seems like you are agreeing with the "I've passed my test and can do what I want" brigade and comments like yours make the driving test out to be a mockery

 

[minesadouble]

I rarely berate a single driver but generalize so as not to cause offence - if a driver recognizes themselves in what I am saying in general.....

Well I don't identify with anything you have said other than there is a safe way and safer way! No one can really comment on anyone's driving until they have been in a car with them. A friend of a friend always drives with 2 hands on the wheel but has also twice driven around a roundabout in the wrong direction! I guess I am struggling to grasp why one hand on the wheel is dangerous if you are in full control of the vehicle.
Just out of interest if you lose an arm are you not allowed to drive at all? I stress that I am curious and not pedantic!!

 

[ROG]

As an ADI I am insulted by your comment.

Why exactly am I not capable of making a decision on whether someone is not a safe driver?
Is it because I expect more than them being "generally safe", but I suppose when they run a child over so long as their "generally safe" then they should be let off?

It seems like you are agreeing with the "I've passed my test and can do what I want" brigade and comments like yours make the driving test out to be a mockery

Most ADIs I have come across that do not also do other sorts of driving work such as fleet training or advanced driver observing seem to have got themselves only into learner driver mode following DVSA rules which make their assessment of a more experienced driver skewed

You might not be one of those but I was generalizing

The basic driving test is fine for what it is intended for - post test is lacking

 

[View]

Just a thought in response to the suggestion that driving with only one hand on the wheel is fine.

Yes, in most circumstances it may leave you in control.

But things change very quickly in the road, and not every driver is as aware or as good as they should be. You as the driver are the biggest safety feature in a vehicle, and are aware (or should be) that other drivers will do daft/dangerous things - so you have to factor that in.

In the time that it takes to react and get that second hand back on the wheel, it may be too late.

That's why I always drive defensively, no matter what size of vehicle I am driving, whether or not I am towing.

Look ahead and give yourself time to think and plan. It's less stressful in the long run.

 

[Flame_]

Thanks, but I was still parked at the side of the road .


I find that people who clamp their phone to their ear, are utterly unable to concentrate on anything else, whether they are drivers, pedestrians or pushing their supermarket trolley.

Did he negotiate the town centre without hitting anyone/anything, almost hitting anyone/anything, failing to indicate before manoeuvering or causing anyone else to accommodate him swerving about, etc? If so I would have no issue with him, phone or no phone. Holding a phone is no different to holding a hand held radio, which is legal. The dangerous part is the eyes taken off the road to find the phone and answer it ringing, IMO.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Did he negotiate the town centre without hitting anyone/anything, almost hitting anyone/anything, failing to indicate before manoeuvering or causing anyone else to accommodate him swerving about, etc? If so I would have no issue with him, phone or no phone. Holding a phone is no different to holding a hand held radio, which is legal. The dangerous part is the eyes taken off the road to find the phone and answer it ringing, IMO.

I find some of the replies to this thread to be quite alarming, and this is one of them. No, in the minute or so that I was observing this horsebox I did not observe any near misses. But how anyone can think that driving a vehicle in a busy, built up area, across a mini roundabout closely followed by a pedestrian crossing, whilst holding a phone clamped to your ear is safe, beggars belief.

Studies have been done showing that using a mobile phone whilst driving, even in hands free mode, seriously affects reaction time.

Very worrying how many people have still not got this message.