Agree that mobile phones fines should be harsh, but chances of getting caught is virtually zero, caught the tail end of a report yesterday that the fines for excessive speed from March is going to be one and half times your weekly salary, this may be only a proposal at this stage but just check before you speed and in a well paid job.
Never used a mobile while driving/ riding.....I barely use one when anyway. Oh and I don't ride past junctions/ intersections at 90mph.
No I'm not perfect...but when I'm riding I look, react, I stay in control expecting the unexpected and give myself time to react. 34 years riding and one no fault low speed rta to date.
Hope you were touching wood. When I ride I ride with the mentality that every other road user is trying to kill me and ride accordingly..
No, turns out it was one of those internet scare stories made up 'cant be arrested without a helmet' etc..
The other thing to remember on this subject is that if you use your mobile as a satnav on your bike/ car any interaction with it will also make you liable to a fine or prosecution.
I like this proposal. I don't have a job, so no income. One and a half times nothing is nothing. Result
I think its all bollox, nothing wrong with texting whilst driving at 100mph in a 30, hell I'm typing this on my laptop whilst riding my bike......
It now seems some of the police chiefs think it should be more proportionate! This is what happens when you promote people in industry who aim to justify their role by making life more complicated! As in, if you're caught on your phone but you're at a standstill stuck in traffic, then that's not as bad, so maybe you should be offered an awareness course! So.....on that line of thinking You should be dealt with more leniently if you're caught doing 100 mph on a country A road at 3am when the only thing in sight is a kamikasi badger! Well we all know that's not going to happen is it folks
Well, as a MET Traffic cop, that I am, making the fines more severe for mobile phones users, won't make a blind bit of difference. All it means is, joe bloggs will request his court hearing, and I'll spend all my spare time in Court, arguing my case. Plus if people like me on police bikes, catch said 'naughty person' committing the crime, and without the luxery of camera evidence, the magistrates will most likely reduce it to 3, because 6 will take said 'naughty person' to 12 and he/she will be disqualified and, without a driving licence, won't be able to work and won't be able to pay bills, blah blah blah......*Cue Pity & Violins* To me, so what...Can't do the time, don't do the crime. But then I'm seeing it from those fatal accidents, that I've been too, where once, FB had been the on screen image, as the accicent had happened, and phone had survived the impact. But, we'll just have to wait & see, if it deters the ususal suspects from using them. You know who they are....
I think you're right! Shock tactics is what is needed as in seeing the aftermath of their actions and maybe a trip to see a simulated body from an RTA Not quite the same but a few years ago with the army they changed tactics of first aid training where it used to be the sick, lame and lazy used for casualty simulation which when they stopped laughing some training got done! Then they started using real amputees as the casualties because they knew how to act having gone through it, the look on the soldiers face when faced with a missing limb (ok with make up in it) actually gave them the shocked needed to act immediately like they should in real life
That'd be no good. Show em the after effects of an accident and they'd be using their phones to photograph it and put on YouTube or Facebook.
More likely they would claim it breached their human rights to be made to see something grizzly and gruesome. It is the smell that would hit them though. You never forget the smell of a body being opened up, a burnt body or one that is a bit shall we say, Ripe Making them sniff that lot would possibly be a better deterent
