This video is a longer watch, but highlights the carnage on the carriageway on the A1.
The lorry driver was accessing dating websites at the time of the RTC.
As far as I’m concerned, the qualification for dangerous driving is met the second you chose to do something like drinking, or surfing or telephoning etc.
The fact you do an “illegal while driving” act then makes any “accident” afterwards not an accident with the lower charge of careless driving, but because the cause of the incident wasn’t accidental, but down to a choice made before, it must be seen as dangerous.
Just as running down the street firing at random a 12 bore is dangerous, and if you hit someone, it’s not accidental, but the direct result of your aggression.
10 years minimum per life taken or ruined, and consecutive, not our namby pamby system of concurrent sentencing.
We’ve all been bored out of our skulls driving down a long dual carriageway.
So maybe we also need to look at how work and rests are structured.
More truck stops with decent facilities 24/7. Even the traditional greasy spoon where we can chat directly to other drivers. Now we seem to be isolated in our cabs for breaks at random spots wherever we’ve found enough space to squeeze in.
It won’t stop the worst offenders from doing whatever they feel entitled to do, but for the rest of us, the more refreshed and rested we are before driving, the easier it is to remain focused fully on driving which is what we’re paid to do.
Great comments Adam, this is true, drivers don’t socialise anymore like they used to, I see them pull in to park up to remain in the cab the whole evening watching a film on their phone or checking up on social media.