BX Club Forum

mat_fenwick wrote:Regarding photo taking, is it necessarily more dangerous than changing the radio station? On my cameraphone I could slide open the lens cover and take a photo by pressing one button, which (if the road was clear) maybe would be no worse than using the radio etc.

Philip Chidlow wrote:What constitutes distracting and at what level should it be legislated against? For me having two bickering (or even fighting) children in the back seats must be enormously (it is, actually!) distracting. And can you legislate against that?

The law as it stands at the moment restricts the holding of anything while driving. Pressing a fixed button in the car is perfectly acceptable (IE radio button, heated rear window etc) but if you have to hold the item to use it, then it is not legal. In theory, if a mobile phone were fixed to the dashboard in a solid mount, and as such does not have to be held to be used, then it is legal to use it on the proviso that it is not distracting. Holding a conversation on a hands-free kit is then a different matter. If it can be conducted as if you were talking to someone else in the car, and the person on the other end of the line knows you are driving, then no problem, but if the conversation requires more of your concentration than you are able to give, you should stop, or terminate the call.

Very similar to the work of a pilot. They are frequently on the radio communicating with ground stations. However, radio communication is less important than flying the aircraft. If the flying suddenly requires that amount of concentration back again, then you ignore the radio, and simply fly the aircraft. I've done this a number of times before now when talking to someone hands free... got to a complex roundabout where I wasn't sure where I was going and had heavy fast traffic to deal with. Once I was over the roundabout I had to ask the other person what they had said over the last 30 seconds, as I had completely ignored them and not said anything.

As for other distractions in the car, I know when I was a young child I was taught in no uncertain terms that I would not cause a problem while in the car. I know this doesn't work for everyone, but you simply have to have an arrangement that works for your situation. I know if I had two children bickering or fighting in the back of a car that was causing a sufficient disctraction that I couldn't concentrate on driving, I'd stop. Just because there's a distraction in my own vehicle doesn't mean I should put everyone else's lives at risk.

Same as taking a photo or using a mobile phone while driving. If someone is willing to put themselves at risk like that, then I don't care if they stick their car nose first in a ditch.. that's their problem. What I object to is the fact that they are putting everyone else in the vicinity at a greatly increased risk. When the tosser in the Range-Rover on his poxy mobile phone misses the give-way sign at a junction and ploughs into the Citroen AX with a mother and small child in it, it won't be the Range-Rover driver who is injured...

pictures say more than words ever can

its getting to the point where the only hands free item in a car is the steering wheel.

I have seen women apply make up but I suppose at least they could say they were using the mirror,

OK, OK... Sorry, don't want to throw stones in glass houses.

By the way, just because I spend a lot of time on this forum and like to participate - and even (heaven forbid) irritate a few members - DOESN'T mean I am in anyway a moderator. I have NO wish to be so. I know it's probably ludicrous but I actually thought DR was a mod at one point.

But interesting debate though about distractions and driving.

Tbh we could do with a moderator at the moment to split this off into a seperate thread rather than muddying Todd's Gallery thread.

Agreed, David. This is an interesting debate.

DavidRutherford wrote:The law as it stands at the moment restricts the holding of anything while driving. Pressing a fixed button in the car is perfectly acceptable (IE radio button, heated rear window etc)

IMO, there are circumstances when fiddling with the radio is equally dangerous, but I guess at this point it becomes difficult, if not impossible to specifically legislate against. The police still have the 'catch all' of driving without due care and attention though.
There have been situations when I have held something whilst driving, such as had a drink from a bottle of water. I would like to think that when I've done that, it's been in a safe situation (i.e. no cars visible, no junctions/hazards etc) and hence not what I would consider a danger to other road users. Not something I would do in a built up area though.

And we haven't even mentioned sneezing yet...

The location of the BX radio is daft isn't it?! (Mind you is it worse than an SM/CX?)...

If I remember rightly, the GSA owned by my Dad had the radio between the seats! What I hate is radios with a multitude of tiny buttons, that you have to look at to actually use. Crazy. Bring back the days of the two knobs that did everything!

I used to accompany a Sales Director out and about in the UK. Sitting in the passenger seat, it was painfully obvious his reactions and driving ability were compromised by quite some margin.
I rarely enter into any detailed conversations whilst driving. You need full concentration...the risks aren't worth it.

When driving i just switch off to whomever is talking to me. Infact my uncle didnt catch his breath for 2hrs, i had no recollection of what the fuck he was talking about (i was driving quickly & at night so was concentrating rather a lot).

Ah multi tasking is a skill for the clever people i guess. I would have concentrated on the road (without speeding) at night, and multi tasked my telling the passenger to shut the up, or paid attention and stemmed the boredom. I also wouldn't drive tired.

I'm still shocked by the number of drivers I see using mobiles at the wheel. The fact that my window looks out to a stretch of road near a primary school doesn't seem to make any odds to these nihilists.

That's why I have on occasion used the train-like air horns of the CX to bring them out of their texting trance.

Fitted similar horns to the BX too. It hasn't failed yet!

I use a bluetooth earpiece for my phone - keep it in the car. I have used it a few times receiving calls and making calls and it's true the entire action can be done without touching the phone (which can be in my rucksack in the boot) though I will say that you do tend to need t accept a call by pressing the ear piece though I do think your concentration remains uninterrupted in doing this.

Anyone else use one of these?

Vanny wrote:Ah multi tasking is a skill for the clever people i guess. .

funny that most women can multi task , so by default that means most women are clever people

Are they really multi tasking,

or doing 2 things badly instead of one thing well?

People don't consider driving to be a serious activity.
That's why they make phone calls, apply make up, drink & drive, drive tired etc and then crash.

The vast majority of accidents are caused by driver mis-attention, but it is they easiest thing to deny and the hardest thing to prove.

There are so few traffic cops in the UK, and all they seem to do is set up speed traps. It takes me 20 minutes to drive home, and every journey I see about 5 people on hand held phones.

I don't think hands free is much better, not if the phone conversation is an important topic such as a business call.

Mike