Roy Twing wrote:Hillman avenger wrote:Petingo wrote:Now they are suggesting hands free phoning in cars should be banned.
They say it is “distracting”.
Quite.
Is it any more “distracting” than speaking to your passengers?
I wouldn’t have thought so.
In fact, I would suggest talking to passengers is more “distracting” on account of one often turns one’s head to look at said passengers.
At least we can talk on the hands free without that particular risk.
There was an interview on PM with a woman who had been on a motorcycle hit by a van whose driver was on a hands-free phone call. She lost her leg. He got 6 points and £100 fine.
Evan Davies raised the question of "isn't it the same as talking to a passenger" and she made the very good point that a passenger is with you in your car and can moderate the conversation when you are in a pressure situation. Someone somewhere else has no idea.
Around here there are a lot of wizzy BMWs, Mercs and the rest, all of which will have Bluetooth. Yet every day I see people driving such cars while holding a phone. Too stupid or too lazy to connect them apparently.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49320473
It's not 'a very good point', - it's just the best the safety extremists can come up with.
What about a bunch of loud kids of varying ages in the car? - they won't have a clue as to what is a 'pressure situation' or not - should they be banned next, or just anaesthetised?
As has been said numerous times, these people won't be happy until the bloke with red flag walks in front of us all again.
"Safety extremists"? That's a great one for the collection.