Kirk had two previous convictions for using a mobile phone while driving.
Outside court, Mr Nimmo’s mother said: “The fact that he was severely sleep deprived and had earlier also used his mobile phone illegally whilst having two warnings for it means that he will have to live with killing Andrew for the rest of his life.”
She said her son came from a long line of lorry drivers. He worked for the same firm as his father - and his brother, grandfather and great-grandfather were all HGV drivers.
After the case, Pc Darren Cawthorne, who led the investigation, said: "Kirk showed no regard for the rules of the road. He ignored the strict legislation around working hours, had two jobs and went to great lengths to fabricate a false record of what work he was doing and when.
"He had also been speeding for most of the journey and had taken a call without a hands-free kit which lasted almost an hour.
“His disregard for road safety was blatant.”
“This was not an accident. Due to Kirk’s driving and lifestyle, in reality it was a disaster waiting to happen.”
rambo19:
And yet people think it’s OK to use the phone whilst driving…
That means hands free as well as hand held as I see no difference in the two - ok, hand held means driving one handed but many drivers do that already without serious safety issues
I can never understand why the law allows hands free but not hand held when both cause the same distraction
He wasn’t on the phone when he crashed, he nodded off due to lack of sleep. That’s how I read it anyway. The irony being he probably wouldn’t of done, if he had been on the phone.
But obviously it was his decision, on his sleep time that put in that situation to start with
rambo19:
And yet people think it’s OK to use the phone whilst driving…
That means hands free as well as hand held as I see no difference in the two - ok, hand held means driving one handed but many drivers do that already without serious safety issues
I can never understand why the law allows hands free but not hand held when both cause the same distraction
Company I work for has banned hands free and its instant dismissal if you get caught on phone.
I don’t have a problem with it, especially as its recently been proved that attention and general awareness whilst driving is similar to that of a drink driver IF you are on a hands free!!
rambo19:
And yet people think it’s OK to use the phone whilst driving…
That means hands free as well as hand held as I see no difference in the two - ok, hand held means driving one handed but many drivers do that already without serious safety issues
I can never understand why the law allows hands free but not hand held when both cause the same distraction
So does that mean talking to a passenger should be illegal as well, this is equally distracting and I have lost count of the number of times I have seen drivers completely unaware of what is going on around them due to being engrossed in conversation with a passenger.
Completely agree with the ban on hand held though.
rambo19:
And yet people think it’s OK to use the phone whilst driving…
That means hands free as well as hand held as I see no difference in the two - ok, hand held means driving one handed but many drivers do that already without serious safety issues
I can never understand why the law allows hands free but not hand held when both cause the same distraction
So does that mean talking to a passenger should be illegal as well, this is equally distracting and I have lost count of the number of times I have seen drivers completely unaware of what is going on around them due to being engrossed in conversation with a passenger.
Completely agree with the ban on hand held though.
The passenger argument never works because a passenger in a vehicle can get a sense of what is happening around them - someone on the other end of a phone cannot
The only passengers which can cause issues are those not old enough to have an idea of their surroundings
This is typical of how ■■■■ poor sentencing is in this country. The maximum for dangerous driving is 14 years, despite all the proof & being found guilty he gets 5, out in 2.5. Having said that the average time spent in jail having been found guilty of murder & getting “life” is 9 years! Oh, and crime doesn’t pay.
ROG:
The passenger argument never works because a passenger in a vehicle can get a sense of what is happening around them - someone on the other end of a phone cannot.
^This.
I don’t talk on my phone whilst driving, period. Wouldn’t use a handsfree even if I was given one, used them before and felt distracted. I’d have the gaffer babbling on in my ear with instructions completely unaware whilst i’m trying to concentrate on negotiating things on a busy road. Then of course you have got the process of actually answering the call, ascertaining who it is, asking them to speak up/repeat when you miss something over the line etc. etc.
For me the act of having a conversation with somebody who isn’t there is what causes the distraction, not the act of holding a phone up to your ear.
Gembo:
I don’t have a problem with it, especially as its recently been proved that attention and general awareness whilst driving is similar to that of a drink driver IF you are on a hands free!!
Yet an extensive and truly independent in depth study by the London School of Economics in conjunction with Carnegie Mellor university in the USA proved making calls on mobile phones whilst driving does not increase accidents.
Let’s face it, the act of talking while driving shouldn’t really cause accidents should it? Regardless of hands free or not. You do things in the cab, tune radio, put in a cd, looking at or reset sat nav, all the time without causing too much damage. Far worse, I think, is the increase in texting as it takes the eyes off the road for a prolonged period of time, combined with the driver not concentrating on the road.
Odd how there is no problem with the police using their radio/ hands free equipment when on a high speed chase.
Tragedy in so many ways affecting so many lives.
I don’t believe any driver who says they have never done anything they shouldn’t have behind the wheel.
midlifetrucker:
Tragedy in so many ways affecting so many lives.
I don’t believe any driver who says they have never done anything they shouldn’t have behind the wheel.
He didn’t learn from previous prosecutions so he wouldn’t have given 2 hoots about anything
BillyHunt:
Odd how there is no problem with the police using their radio/ hands free equipment when on a high speed chase.
Specialist advanced driver training
Bollox. Well, I’ll admit that they have specialist training, but they are not excercising higher driving standards,they are instead excercising double standards. Does the 20 year old PC in a marked Astra have specialist training? Does the ambulance driver have training geared towards using his radio whilst driving?
Do taxi drivers have training to use their radio? Or CB’ers? I know that you are going to trot out the DWDCA line, and I’ll admit that just maybe the police could charge you with that, but the fact remains that there is no specific charge for using a hand held radio whilst on the move, yet there is one for mobiles.
BillyHunt:
Odd how there is no problem with the police using their radio/ hands free equipment when on a high speed chase.
Specialist advanced driver training
Bollox. Well, I’ll admit that they have specialist training, but they are not excercising higher driving standards,they are instead excercising double standards. Does the 20 year old PC in a marked Astra have specialist training? Does the ambulance driver have training geared towards using his radio whilst driving?
Do taxi drivers have training to use their radio? Or CB’ers? I know that you are going to trot out the DWDCA line, and I’ll admit that just maybe the police could charge you with that, but the fact remains that there is no specific charge for using a hand held radio whilst on the move, yet there is one for mobiles.
Perhaps before berating the specialist training you ought to have more info on it instead of just an opinion based on not much
The reason that mobiles were targeted with specific legislation was because too many were doing it - the same would happen to eating apples if that became a specific overall issue
As it happens as part of my military cp training I underwent training for and passed a police class 1 driving examination. Don’t recall being trained to use the radio then tbh. Perhaps you did on your course though?