Thread: Drink drivers being targetted this Christmas

Originally Posted by Fluids

Yep! We all drive, and use a UHF, and listen to the radio/CD, and talk with our passengers .... and arrives safley .... but the idiots who TEXT whilst driving ... and that's the main reason talking on a mobile gets banned ... we've had mobiles for way longer than the ban ... smartphones have got us to where we are now.

The average person is competant enough to talk hands free on a mobile whilst driving ... he talks to his passengers !!

Personally I find talking to passengers much less distracting than talking on the hands free. Passengers, especially in the front seat, generally clam up when dangerous situations arise or they see body signals from me indicating my need for concentration. On the phone I find my concentration narrows a lot, so I only chat when I am out of heavy traffic or tell the other person to hold on while I park.

Yes using the phone in the car reduces your concentration like you are a bit under. Except shutting up is faster than sobering up.

Originally Posted by It'sNotWorthComplaining!

I said havoc on roads not death on roads.
......

Every body has an excuse for justifying what is not allowed.

I have seen USA statistics for all accidents as well as deaths - and there are no systematic differences between states with and without phone use bans.

Please note that I am not giving excuses or justifying anything, simply pointing out that the data does not support phone use as a major cause of accidents and deaths. (it is probably a minor factor, but so are many other things that are not banned!)

John

How often have you been driving along a double lane roadway and the person in the vehicle alongside you is texting, head down looking at the phone so they can read the reply, smiling to themselves and totally oblivious to the fact you are watching them. When they sense they are being watched they get all embarrassed and speed off!
It's got me stuffed how they can even steer the car whilst texting.....let alone drive it!
Definetly dangerous stuff......just another aspect that contributes to the roads being a warzone!

Cheers, Mick.

Victoria has had a significant drop in speed camera income, so they have decided not to reveal where their mobile speed camera's will be located.
Definetly not about revenue is it!

Cheers, Mick

Originally Posted by JDNSW

I have seen USA statistics for all accidents as well as deaths - and there are no systematic differences between states with and without phone use bans.

Please note that I am not giving excuses or justifying anything, simply pointing out that the data does not support phone use as a major cause of accidents and deaths. (it is probably a minor factor, but so are many other things that are not banned!)

John

I think you may have considered this possibility earlier, but I wonder whether the reason there is no significant difference between states with and without a ban may be that there is no significant difference between mobile phone usage regardless of the ban.

If I were simply to go on the basis of what I see, I would not have realised that NSW had a ban on the use of phones. I see them being used so often that as a casual observer I could be forgiven for thinking that it was legal.

Unless of course US drivers are more law abiding than a lot of Australian drivers appear to be.

A possible reason why the prevalence of phone usage created a rise in the accident statistics may be that phone usage by itself may in fact have led to a very small increase in accidents but that increase has been effectively balanced by a combination of other things that have been responsible for a marginal improvement.

I have no evidence to support any of this; it is pure speculation. As you have said on numerous occasions, many accidents have a multiplicity of causes and it is rarely possible to confidently attribute an accident to a single cause. So apart from a few things like seat belts and RBT, it is hard to be sure of the harm or benefits of one factor.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Problem I have is that if mobile phone use is as dangerous as claimed -

1. Why has the number of road deaths continued to decline over the period since mobile phones have gone from rare to ubiquitous (and routinely used by many drivers)?

2. Why is it that accident rates and road death rates in the United States show no difference in the continued decline between those states that allow mobile phone use and those that don't?

The first could be explained by assuming that mobile phone use by drivers is rare - I don't know what your experience is, but my observation is that it is very common. And I think I am the only person I know who does not routinely use the phone while driving!

The second could be explained, at least as far as the lack of difference goes by assuming everyone in the states that ban it ignore the ban (which may be right!). But that does not explain the continued decline in the statistics.

John

John

Your use of generalised statistics sounds an impressive argument against phone use bans, however specific research on phone use had reported a 4 times greater risk of having an accident when using a mobile phone over when not using a mobile phone. The extraneous variable in the generalised statistics data is that during the period since the advent of mobile phones we have concurrently seen significant increases in the safety of the passenger cell i.e. from the rare driver only airbag, now to multiple aribags on all passenger seats. It is likely this increasing occupant safety that has masked the phone use statistics.

You only have observe daily traffic, the irratic driver with the phone to their head, the driver texting in traffic not realising a 100 metre gap has appeared in front of them as the traffic moved away, the rapid turns at intersections without indication when the phone using driver realises they are about to pass their turn. These I have personally witnessed.

Diana

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

John

The extraneous variable in the generalised statistics data is that during the period since the advent of mobile phones we have concurrently seen significant increases in the safety of the passenger cell i.e. from the rare driver only airbag, now to multiple aribags on all passenger seats. It is likely this increasing occupant safety that has masked the phone use statistics.
Diana

It's a good thing that all these phone using drivers aren't driving Defenders then

Dave.

forgot to mention the mobile phone users are mainly right handed, so whilst talking they don't use indicators whilst talking because the indicator stalk is on the right hand side of the wheel.
This doesn't apply to Volo drivers, BMW or Merc drivers as these don't even have indicators, I think they are a factory option, seems no one wanted this option.

Landy drivers are ok using mobiles as they use the left hand indicator stalk