I have a bit of a thing about people driving while using their mobile phone. Someone told me that it is as detrimental to a driver’s concentration as being over the alcohol limit. There is quite enough poor driving in London as it is without adding to it with mobile phone usage. Also, why are people so addicted to their mobile phones that their conversation cannot wait until they have stopped the car? How urgent is that request to pick up some salad on the way home? Once you get into the habit of looking, you notice quite how many people are a danger to themselves and others.
A while back I was out for a run and I was nearly run over by a Transport for London branded car. The driver had driven straight through a red light across a pedestrian crossing and on to a roundabout. The traffic was jammed ahead and I caught up with the driver and remonstrated with him. He could not have cared less. I told him that he had just gone through a red and could easily have hit me as I crossed. He carried on talking on the phone while also telling me to mind my own business, he even suggested that it was me who should be watching where I was going!
As soon as I got home I fired off an email to Transport for London detailing exactly what had happened, the number plate of the vehicle involved and a description of the driver. At first I did not even get an acknowledgement from the organisation which is responsible for the safety of the roads, buses and tubes in this city. After a bit of chasing I got a holding reply and then another email saying that the matter would be dealt with internally but that the result would be confidential. In other words they did not give a shit and no action would be taken. The driver would not be prosecuted or even disciplined and would carry on driving these cramped streets. The citizen taxpayer who had nearly been run down would have no redress.
This evening I was walking home when, looking both ways to cross a side street, I saw something which didn’t look quite right. There was a taxi approaching me towards the main road but I thought the street was one-way in the other direction. I did a double-take, then looked again at the street signs and I was right. The taxi swept past at a decent lick and onto the main road. The driver was gassing on his phone. Two or three minutes later the same taxi overtook me again having done a quick loop around the block. The driver was still on his phone.
If professional drivers in the form of TfL employees and black cab drivers are driving like idiots, what kind of example does that set to anyone else? How much faith can you put in the person who is driving you home at vast expense if he drives the wrong way up a street without even noticing? Who can we trust?
I’ve driven while talking on a mobile phone twice, it was a horrible experience and I felt totally out of control. In some ways I can imagine it being worse than drink driving (which I haven’t experienced), when you are at least trying to concentrate on what is going on. I’ll never drive while using my phone again.
You highlight an interesting question about internal discipline. The standard one liner you received gives the impression nothing is going on. If I was in the same situation I’d be very unhappy if my personal details / circumstances were given out, however, some middle ground needs to be found where the complainent feels they are not being fobbed off. Unfortunately I don’t have any suggestions of what that could be!
I think the police are too busy looking out for motorists blowing their nose while in stationary traffic to worry about the ones on their mobiles…
I’ve noticed this too. It’s everywhere. Speed cameras do not pick up the really dangerous stuff. In most cases speeding is safe because rarely does a ticket apply to an accident. Misuse of phones and poor road craft are far more lethal at ANY speed.
I would also add Radios, C:D players, MP3 players (Whatever THEY may be :-§ ), and ESPECIALLY those things with a screen and a moving map thing.
It is an offence to have a T.V screen, or moving pictures, in view of the driver whilst driving. So how did THESE pieces of electronic shite make it through?
Also, in Germany, we still have the system whereby if you see something, get the car number, and report it to the police, people actualy DO get prosecuted.
But then WE are not a third world country.
Personal responsibility fot the consequences of ones actions? Nah.Fear of being caught? Almost nil. Fear of what might happen if one is? Almost nil. I think that pretty much sums up criminal matters across the board.
Who can we trust? Well not the establishment as it would punish the wrongdoer to the limit of the law. But they don’t. Not the police. Not employers. No-one. We trust to luck and the judgement of the biggest and strongest.
Furor Teutonicus – sadly we are.
Trust bulldog spirit, Philipa. We have come through hard times before, never allowing our currency to be used for wallpaper or feeling some inclination to murder a Nation of scapegoats.
Um.. we invaded Iraq.
All true BE. I have a very rough rule of thumb when I see people driving on the phone.
If they see me in my marked Police car and drop the phone looking suitably guilty, chances are that as long as their docs check out they are going to be given a bollocking – sorry, ‘verbal warning’ – then let on their way.
If they don’t recognise, or process the fact that there’s a Police car there then the ticket gets served.
I always say to them that there is no way that they can claim it wasn’t distracting them if they didn’t notice a marked police vehicle alongside or looming in the mirror.
Sadly, BE, your experience with taxis is far from unique.
I use them regularly in one of our major cities, always black cabs, and it’s absolutely commonplace for them to take and make calls on their hand-held mobiles while driving. The fact that they’re completely unashamed about doing this in front of a customer surely shows that they really don’t care at all about the prohibition.
Anecdote: a few years ago I had need to take a taxi from the Piazzale Roma in Venice all the way to Lido di Jesolo, late at night. The driver was on his phone all the way (in Italy it’s even more commonplace), and was clearly running some sort of entertainment business on the side. He didn’t realise I understood Italian. At one point he was setting up an evening for some German visitors. His comment: “Germans? Give them some beer, and a swimming pool, and a few corners where they can go and sh*g, and they’ll be happy”. Near-collapse of stout party, as the saying has it.