Safe Speed Forums

Hands-free ban for company staff

One of the UK's biggest transport firms will ban employees from using mobile phones even with legal hands-free kits.

FirstGroup's bus and train drivers are already banned from using them and that will extend to any staff on business.

The firm commissioned research which suggests talking behind the wheel can quadruple the risk of accidents.

The Transport Research Laboratory study found hands-free kits provided no safety advantage over illegally holding a phone while driving.

Crash danger

According to the research, a driver on the phone was more distracted than a driver who had drunk as much as the legal alcohol limit.

The risk of a crash was four times higher when the driver was on the phone, it found.

A legal ban would be difficult to enforce because police officers would have to spot a driver's lips moving.

However, once the motorist is stopped mobile phone records could show a conversation took place.

FirstGroup operates more than one in five local bus services across the UK, and trains including First Great Western.

And finally, are they eventually going to wake up to the fact that roadsigns, pedestrians and other traffic can be distracting too?

The firm commissioned research which suggests talking behind the wheel can quadruple the risk of accidents.

and what of speed cameras and their distracting effects?

Are the government just moving the guilt trip from place to place

drink drive
to speeding
to mobile phones

... there already is one law in place that can be used against drivers who are driving without due care and attention - we don't need more! Why do they insist on tackling the symptoms and not the cause?

[...]Like anything else to do with driving it's all to do with experience, if you're a business user doing it day in day out you get pretty good at it[...]

...[...]If you dont then you're a crap driver and going to have an accident mobile phone or not.

The proposed charging of people using a hand held phone with "dangerous driving" even if they are not driving dangerously is:

- a fit of pique by the Government who find that they cannot get people to comply even with their recent law change to 3 points. Why not make it life imprisonment? If one life can be saved ...
- ill founded, as there is little proof that lots of accidents are caused by people actually making calls. (c.f. speeding debate). The usual reports are "was using a phone just before the accident". What does "just" mean?
- pointless as the jails are full.

It's just PR. to frighten people. They are trying to equate talking on a handsfree with drunk driving but if they try this it will bring the law into even more disrepute as nobody will believe it.

In case you think I'm a mobile advocate, I, personally, can't stand people using a hand held when driving - I just think the Government are stupid.

For example, how many times have you seen a van driver with a phone held against their head. A lot of times, at least by my observations, yet vans are statistically less likely to have a crash!

Drivers who use mobile phones and satnavs face TWO YEARS in jail
By STEVE DOUGHTY - More by this author »

Last updated at 09:43am on 21st December 2007

Drivers who use their mobile phone at the wheel face up to two years in jail under changes to motoring laws.

They can be charged with dangerous driving if prosecutors decide they were "dangerously distracted" by their mobile.

The same applies to those who fiddle with MP3 players, satnavs or other electronic devices or light a cigarette or put on makeup, while in charge of a moving car.

If convicted, they would also face a minimum two-year driving ban.

Previously, these offences were charged as careless driving, which incurs a fine and may not result in the driver losing their licence.

Under the tougher rules, such transgressions can be treated as seriously as speeding or running red lights - and could even lead to a life sentence if someone dies as a result of an accident.

Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald QC said: "This responds to public concern about the dangers of driving while using a mobile phone and this means that a charge of dangerous driving will now be the starting point for this offence, where there is clear evidence that danger has been caused by its use."

Prosecutors have been told they can bring manslaughter charges - which carry up to a life sentence - if a vehicle is deliberately used as a weapon, or if "the standard of driving falls so far below the required standard that there is a serious and obvious risk of death and the conduct of the defendant is so reprehensible as to amount to gross negligence".
Research suggests as many as half a million motorists a day use hand-held mobile phones while driving.

Talking or texting on a phone has been banned for four years but the penalty was only a £30 fine.

In February, the punishment was lifted to a £60 fine and three points on the licence.

But these rules encourage prosecutors to charge drivers with more serious offences.

Rob Gifford, executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Transport Safety, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's not every single driver using a mobile phone while driving who faces jail. It's those few whose behaviour leads them to have a crash when they are using a mobile at the same time.

"What people are being reminded is that driving is a complicated activity and it is better to concentrate on driving than talking."

Sheila Ranger, head of campaigns at the RAC, said: "This is for people who are doing the most outrageous acts on their phone.

"We still see terrible crashes where people have been texting, driving into the back of stationary queues because they haven't seen them."

And nobody has managed to satisfactorily explain why it's not dangerous for truckers to use CB radios or emergency services to use their 2 way radios but somehow it's dangerous for "Joe Public" to use a phone!