SultanOfSwing

Yep. Were they holding the phones as opposed to using a hands free set? I think that's where most of the problem lies, driving one-handed and not fully concentrating. A (well implemented) hands free system should at least eliminate a lot of the loss of concentration.

However, that's just a possible compromise, personally I couldn't give a toss if they ban them altogether

Bob

It's illegal in MA too, but they've only issued something like 4 tickets for it in a couple of years.

Problem is, when pulled over, folks just say they were dialing a number and that's the end of that as there's no cause to search the phone to see when a text was sent.

tinman0

Because there hasn't been a massive increase in deaths on the road because of mobile phones.

Younger people may well be more dangerous on the roads today - but is that any surprise since the UK more or less did away with traffic officers, and rely totally on speed cameras and automated ticketing.

tinman0

Yawn. Crap argument. Better not let them out of the house in that case. Dangerous world we live in.

SultanOfSwing

Someone doesn't have to die to make it inadvisable to do something in the car and age has nothing to do with it.

This afternoon (as a passenger, so I could look around) on the way home from work I saw a middle aged woman beginning to turn across traffic with her phone in one hand, turning the wheel with the other, swap hands, turn the wheel a bit more, swap phone back again - at one point with the phone to her right ear in her left hand while her right hand struggled with the wheel. God love her if she had to change gears as well

Few would argue that it's that important to be on the phone. Again - I can make an argument for a well implemented hands free system but again I personally don't care if they ban mobile phone use outright, I won't lose any sleep over it.

Beaverstate

I wish I could remember the source, but as I recall an article I read in the local fishwrap cited a D.O.T. study showing that hands free was still less safe than talking to a passenger. Something about a passenger being another set of eyes even when the driver was involved in conversation. The D.O.T. may be the NTSB>

Yorkieabroad

Yeah, I saw that one - seem to remember the research came out of one of the US universities..?

SultanOfSwing

That does make sense. Really, there is nothing safer than pulling over to take a call, but that's just my opinion.

Bob

Well people frown when you tie the little scrotes up in the basement.

tinman0

IIRC One of the first bits of research into mobile phone use was about driving one handed and using a mobile phone with the other hand. It's the obvious bit of research to do if you live in a screaming nanny state.

The result (from one of the UK universities iirc) was that the average human is 98% as capable of driving with one hand as two hands. Their discovery led to a far more interesting conclusion that the brain is perfectly able to compensate for a missing limb as and when needed.

==

I went to an IAM meeting a few years ago and there was a crash investigator from Thames Valley Police who was showing us quite a few cases that he had been involved in. Very interesting stuff, and very disturbing stories frankly. Nice chap, wouldn't want his job though.

But his speech soon got round to mobile phones and safety. One of the things he said, and I remember this quite clearly "I have been to countless accidents where the mobile phone was a contributory factory in the accident". Fair enough.

When we got to questions and answers a few minutes later, I asked him about it, and my question was this "How many of those accidents were related to mobile phone usage? Any percentage you want, that you would stand by".

He replied "Countless". So I pushed him a again "give me any percentage that you would be comfortable with. 5% 10% 1%. Any number you would be happy to stand behind."

The two and fro between us went on for a couple of minutes, he evaded my question every time.

By the time he finished, most of the room felt that he made up the whole mobile phone thing as he was unwilling to even say 1. If a traffic investigator can't even say "1 accident I've attended was caused by a mobile phone" then it does leave you wondering somewhat.

SultanOfSwing

Just because you or I can drive one-handed doesn't mean everyone can. The way this woman was faffing about, especially when about to turn across traffic, just suggested to me that she might have been better served concentrating on one thing at a time.

As for percentages - I'm not a big believer in them myself. I go from the evidence of my own eyes to draw my own conclusions. Not that I'd submit anecdotal evidence for any kind of rigorous review but I stand by the fact that most of the time, when I get cut off by someone on the road, they have a mobile phone to their ear. Trying to determine whether an accident was actually caused by use of a mobile phone after the accident has happened could be very difficult, especially if the phone was destroyed and one can't access the call logs to see if it was being used at the approximate time of the accident, so those kind of statistics are sort of meaningless in my opinion.

Remember, all of what I've said is just opinion - I personally couldn't care less if they ban mobile phone use when driving based on my own experiences on the road and the fact that it's only the bloody phone when all's said and done.

JSL8610

This is quite interesting. Can you remember the source? I had a quick look but it's always impossible to find the exact source you're looking for. Almost all of the peer-reviewed research I found though indicated a reduction in performance when using a mobile phone. For example

http://hfs.sagepub.com/content/48/1/196.short
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...01457599000184
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...01457504000533

These were just the first 3 results that came up in a Google Scholar search using the phrase "driving using mobile phone" (Most people won't have access to the full text, but the abstracts provide the key information). What's interesting is that hands-free devices don't appear to be much/any better than not using hands free (at least, not in this very limited search).

Yorkieabroad

With that line of probing, my guess is he thought you were a reporter and didn't want to be quoted ("a number happy to stand behind" sounds like a request for a quote, no?) with an off the cuff figure when he didn't have an accurate one to hand. He was probably right to decline, especially as you proved in the above post that you'd be quite happy to misquote him..although he obviously wouldn't know that at the time...... He probably got down the pub that night and said "you'll never guess what this tosser in the audience was giving me a hard time on ..... "

Yorkieabroad

Thing is, Tinman is deliberately(?) leading away from the main point, which is that the main danger of the phone is not necessarily the fact that one hand may not be on the wheel, but more that the "whole brain" is not focused on the job in hand - ie the real danger is in the distraction.

I agree pretty much with everything you've argued in here - the only thing I'd disagree with is your view that "I personally couldn't care less if they ban mobile phone use" - I'd actually like them to be banned - to my mind, its about on a par with drunk driving, something else which is tolerated a lot more than it should be, at least in this part of the US.

Ethelred_the_Unready

It might be illegal here in MA, but I see lots of people doing it, even while on the highway. I've even seen people texting while driving. I almost got hit the other day by one of those crossover almost-minivan type cars. She veered into the lane I was in and I had to break. I overtook her and saw her yapping on her mobile phone, sporting those ugly Lady Gaga type sunglasses. To call it stupidity would be an understatement!