albion1971:
Truckulent:
albion1971:
Wiretwister:
Albion1971.
RoSPA is a royal society not a company and given the role it fills, Prevention of Accidents, it certainly has an agenda which, however worthy, will render it a partisan organisation. The problem that remains is how many occasions are hands free phones used without incident and is the ratio of occasions used/incidents happening any different when benchmarked against, for example, talking to passengers, controlling vehicle features like the heating/climate system, unexpected physical events like sneezing, foreign body influence like bees, wasps etc.
Can you provide a reference to data that supports your assertion that hands free use of a phone is the only aggravating factor? How does this figure compare as percentage of all incidents? “Many” is a bit vague and I suspect that alcohol, drugs, inappropriate speed and fatigue are factors in more incidents than hands free phone use alone.
Apologies a slip of the tongue,I know it is not a company.
Unfortunately there are many accidents and incidents caused by drivers using hands free.
Here is just one example of a fatality…
telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ … crash.html
We obviously have different opinions about the matter so I will stick to pulling into a safe area to take my calls or wait till later.
One day hands free will probably be made illegal and even if it saves one life then that will be a good thing.
I have witnessed quite a few drivers using hands free and I can honestly say it has a big affect on their driving.
It is the same with speeding…drivers think they are quite safe to speed…and some think they are ok to drink and drive but the problem is most do not have sound judgement on very much as we can see by the poor driving on our roads everyday.
Silly boy. Well you have shot yourself in the foot with the speeding reference.
There is NOTHING dangerous about speed. If there was, people would die every time there was a F1 race…
It is inappropriate use of speed that can be a problem. Driving within the speed limit DOES NOT mean you are safe, any more than driving above it means you are not.
A police driver (class 1) doing 40mph in a 30 mph limit is likely to be a safer proposition than a freshly passed novice doing 30mph.
Or do you not agree with that?
The only reason speed is such an obsession is because it is easy to measure, and very lucrative to all concerned, except the motorist.
A stronger police presence , and proper, dedicated traffic police as it used to be would be much more effective at preventing all forms of poor driving. But this would cost money and not make very much money so it is of no interest.
Most road ‘safety’ schemes these days are the result of accountants working out what they can make a profit from, and nothing to do with actual safety. 
Do you really think I am unaware that inappropriate speed causes accidents? That is exactly what I am referring to.
The number of lorry and car drivers that use inappropriate speed when in fact they feel they are driving quite safely.
I have come across it many times during my years of training(advanced) both with young and old drivers.They simply are not aware of the dangers.There are many drivers not capable of judging a safe speed hence we have speed limits.If we were all left to our own devices there would be far more carnage on our roads.
Going back to the original topic I notice you did not comment on the 3 lorry drivers who killed innocent people while using a hands free phone.
Were they any different to you and I ? Probably not.
They were certainly different to me, as I have never killed anyone, whether using a phone or not. What you are saying is that irrespective of someone’s experience and skill, everyone should be tarred with the same brush, i.e. incapable of driving and speaking on the telephone at the same time. You cannot just assume everyone is incapable - perhaps you are incapable of doing this and feel you wish to ban everyone else from doing it? See, that’s unreasonable, I’ve made unfair assumptions.
If you genuinely believe it is not possible to speak on a hands free phone and drive, then we must also consider the option of banning all drivers from speaking whilst driving, even to passengers in the car.
How many drivers have caused/had accidents whilst talking to passengers within the car? How many have had accidents due to listening to loud music/been distracted by the radio (try listening to J Vine when they are debating HGV use!), rummaging in the glove box for their sunglasses/cd’s ipod/fruit sweets/cigs etc. Are we going to ban all this as well? And if so, how will we police it? With a camera on a pole■■?
Using a hands free phone is no different to talking to your wife and kids/mates etc… It can be done perfectly safely. It’s a potential distraction, perhaps for some. But so are a lot of other things that can occur whilst driving.
Regarding speed limits. The problem here is the mantra is within the limit is safe. It often isn’t and therefore, regularly fails to achieve it’s objective. A lot of accidents are caused by poor driving for sure, and very often this is not excessive speed as you will know. Driver inattention and poor observation are classic problems but there are no police on the roads anymore to speak of. Some people are just poor drivers yes, but a lot of people drive badly because they know they can get away with it - who’s to stop them?
More training and tougher tests are needed - I’d agree on that. But to tar all drivers as incapable of driving whilst chatting on a hands free phone is wrong. I know it’s wrong, because I’ve done it - many times, over the last sixteen years without a single incident - and so have many other folk. 
