Driver on hands-free mobile caused crash

[summerdays]

Drivers have been given a stark warning of the dangers of hands-free mobile phone calls after a haulier was jailed for causing a fatal crash whilst talking on a Bluetooth headset.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2201008/Driver-using-hands-free-phone-caused-fatal-crash.html

Marvyn Richmond, 49, was so engrossed in a conversation with his mother that he failed to notice traffic ahead of him had come to a standstill, and ploughed into the back of the queue, killing Michael Buston, a passenger in a van.

Hopefully a few motorists will take note although if you read the comments at the bottom of the page it doesn't sound as if they will.

 

[John the Monkey]

When will these boneheads realise that propelling 2 tonnes of metal at 30 miles an hour (if the rest of us are lucky) is inherently dangerous, and requires concentration?

I hope they throw away the key.

 

[woohoo]

When will these boneheads realise that propelling 2 tonnes of metal at 30 miles an hour (if the rest of us are lucky) is inherently dangerous, and requires concentration?

I hope they throw away the key.

Probably nearer 40 tonnes of metal

Richmond, of Oakwood, Derby, an HGV driver for 25 years, caused carnage when his lorry slammed into the queue of traffic on the A631 at Corringham, near Gainsborough, Lincs.

The court was told that he was "oblivious to all around him" because of the 23-minute call to his mother and did not even apply the brakes of his Scania HGV before ploughing into the traffic.

 

[yello]

Hopefully a few motorists will take note although if you read the comments at the bottom of the page it doesn't sound as if they will.

Indeed. This one particularly angered me....

This is an accident with a tragic outcome but nevertheless it was an accident. His call was not illegal but he did allow himself to become distracted by it. He now lives with the results of his mistake.

Yes, just an unavoidable accident. No mention that the distraction might have been avoidable if the driver had not been on the phone to his mother. And, yes, he might live with the result but sadly the man he killed, Michael Buston, does not and the family of Michael Buston have to live with it.

The law should be changed. People do not have to make mobile phone calls whilst driving. It is as simple as that.

 

[Riding in Circles]

The odds are that the same driver would have been "distracted" by something good on the radio. Or a girl in a short skirt on the pavement so maybe radios and short skirts should be banned to.

 

[dodgy]

I've yet to make or take a phone call yet whilst driving couldn't wait until later, we managed before 1994(ish).

Dave.

 

[marinyork]

One does wonder what he was doing speaking to his mother for over 20 minutes while driving. A couple of minutes perhaps, but 20?

Some people are like that though. My sister got a handsfree kit installed in her car a couple of years back (did it otherwise before that) and rings up various of my relatives whilst on Yorkshire to South East England jaunts because it is "boring" not talking during driving. Some previous work colleagues from a while back were exactly the same.

 

[yello]

The odds are that the same driver would have been "distracted" by something good on the radio. Or a girl in a short skirt on the pavement so maybe radios and short skirts should be banned to.

In short, yes. If it were practical to do so. Yes, it is human nature to be distracted - so we remove all possible causes of distraction where it is practical to do so. OR we accept that lives will be lost occasionally to such distractions. Which would you prefer? Which would society at large prefer?

Realistically, there's not much we can do about the 'short skirt' distraction, or even 'kids in the back seat' distraction... but there's no such argument for mobile phone usage. Mobile phone usage in cars can be curtailed as it is not necessary. Certainly not for 20 minutes!

The situation with radios is an interesting one and comparable, intuitively I would agree. So there's perhaps an equal argument for removing car radios! I don't know but perhaps levels of engagement with the radio is less than a mobile, again (and dangerously?) intuition tells me it would be.