People look away when they adjust the heater controls. People look away when they talk to the passenger. Why is using a phone, that doesn't really require much (if any) looking at to use, so dangerous?

It's just daft really. It's illegal to use a phone on a petrol forecourt, even though you'll never get a spark out of one. Yet you're allowed to drive a car into one - have you ever seen Unser the bonnet of an older car at night in the rain - sparks galore. Are they banned? No!

Sure, a text message isn't appropriate whilst driving, but I don't see why making a call or videoing, neither of which require ones eyes to leave the road.

Quote from tristancliffe :

In fairness, you don't need to look at someone to talk to them, or look at a phone to talk into it. I rarely find I crash into things when I chat to a passenger, and I rarely find that I fall over whilst walking, talking, eating a sandwich, thinking about work, mentally choosing my evening meal, and looking for traffic as we try to cross the road.

The human mind, even that of the male, is capable of more than one thing at once. Especially if that something is something as easy as driving.

And yes, driving is easy. Have you seen the sort of moron that can pass a test? It's only difficult when it's new. After about 10 minutes it's one of the easiest things in the world. Certainly easier than eating a crumbly cookie, giving a pill to a cat, or programming a video recorder, yet there are no laws saying you can't talk to someone in another room whilst doing any of them.

^ what he said. Tristan = the voice of reason.

Also that certain people are more able to do multi tasking than others. I mean if legal I could drive on the phone with very little reduction in observation or reaction time. However my next door neighbour might crash into a parked car, for example.

Quote from DevilDare :

Actually I do.

And I dont talk about "my" car because I dont have one yet. I could buy one now, but it would be useless since I still need bit more cash for insurance, so...

Anyway, off topic...

Well presumably you haven't driven, or have driven very little, so still, your point is sort of invalid.

Quote from Boris Lozac :

Well you can't kill anyone if you drop your cookie while programming a VCR now, can you.. Driving is easy but doing stupid things like looking away from the road can kill people, not the fact you can't parallel park.

Could do if there was a smurf under your VCR and it hit him on the head.

Quote from dadge :

if it's not in 3D then i'm not interested!

Agreed.

Although, the incident really isn't funny - it's very lucky that no-one was harmed.

The reasons are obvious, when you have a passenger in the car and you approach a tricky situation, they shut the **** up and let you get on with driving. When you're on the phone they can't see what is going on and keep on talking. Which is why banning the use of phones but allowing hands free is redundant. The distraction is still there.

There are already laws that cover adjusting the heater controls/radio should a bobby spot you doing it and he felt that it has caused your driving to suffer.

I'd never go as far as to say driving one handed in itself is dangerous, but filming your driving means having to watch the road through your phone, since the phone display is slightly delayed, you're slowing down your reaction times.

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

when you have a passenger in the car and you approach a tricky situation, they shut the **** up and let you get on with driving.

Obviously never been in the car with a woman then.

While defiantely scary, I fail to se the "miraculously" and the "escaping"... the board merely penetrated and got lodged in the windscreen by the looks of it. Spectacular? Yes? A miracle that somebody survived it? Nope.
At best, it was a tad of luck it didn't smash her hand.

On other news, joing the hands free talking debate: I do agree that it's quite distracting trying to film while driving a car, as the camera needs a lot of attention to be pointed in the right direction, at least relatively. You won't immediately crash, burn and die, but you're distracted enough to miss things.
Same as with talking, no matter if holding a phone or talking to a passenger. While it does not impede the genreal ability to drive much, as in: staying on the road and not hitting large objects like cars going on the same road, it does severly hamper the attention you pay, and I for one regularly miss traffic signs like speed limits while talking.

And somewhat related: recently I see more and more people using their phones while driving in "speaker" mode, or whatever it is called in english, not holding it to their ears or using a handsfree, but holding them stupidly in front of their faces... what use is that?

You don't HAVE to listen to the phone. If you're chatting away, and something exciting happens (you skid, someone pulls out in front of you, the lights turn to red when you least expect it) you can stop listening and devote 100% attention to the road. Then you say "sorry, the lights just changed and I had to brake, so I missed the last 5 seconds of what you said". Easy!

And why do you have to look at the phone to video? I video my racing, but don't have to watch it through a screen. You can just hold the camera/phone in the right direction and look out of the window directly.

Bunch of sissies.

Edit: The holding the phone in front of the face comes from TV programmes. The TV people want to be able to hear both sides of the conversation, so it's done on speaker phone with the phone held out at a stupid angle. But the public (which are by and large morons collectively, and the main reason democracy can't work) think it must be cool or better, and copy them, thus looking like knobs.

Quote from ColeusRattus :

While defiantely scary, I fail to se the "miraculously" and the "escaping"... the board merely penetrated and got lodged in the windscreen by the looks of it. Spectacular? Yes? A miracle that somebody survived it? Nope.
At best, it was a tad of luck it didn't smash her hand.

It's perfectly feasble that if that piece of wood was about half a foot to the left it could have killed her or caused serious and permanent damage. Some woman had her face all messed up and got awarded $15m in damages due to it.

On the other hand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdOOIxcUjAs

Quote from tristancliffe :

You don't HAVE to listen to the phone. If you're chatting away, and something exciting happens (you skid, someone pulls out in front of you, the lights turn to red when you least expect it) you can stop listening and devote 100% attention to the road. Then you say "sorry, the lights just changed and I had to brake, so I missed the last 5 seconds of what you said". Easy!

And why do you have to look at the phone to video? I video my racing, but don't have to watch it through a screen. You can just hold the camera/phone in the right direction and look out of the window directly.

Bunch of sissies.

Edit: The holding the phone in front of the face comes from TV programmes. The TV people want to be able to hear both sides of the conversation, so it's done on speaker phone with the phone held out at a stupid angle. But the public (which are by and large morons collectively, and the main reason democracy can't work) think it must be cool or better, and copy them, thus looking like knobs.

The problem isn't stopping to listen or talk when something happens, the problem is the longer reaction time when something happens that needs your attention.

And the speaker phone thing is even more strange as it's not a common practice on TV over here. I can't think of a single time I saw it on TV.

Why does it have to be miraculous? Can't it just be coincidental?

That video tells us to keep our roads clean. Hell, if this happened to me - i would shit brix.

Quote from ColeusRattus :

The problem isn't stopping to listen or talk when something happens, the problem is the longer reaction time when something happens that needs your attention.

But surely the same redirection of attention has to occur when listening to a radio, talking to a passenger or scratching your nose?

Quote from tristancliffe :

But surely the same redirection of attention has to occur when listening to a radio, talking to a passenger or scratching your nose?

This just in: new law prohibits drivers from scratching any part of their body while driving.

(stupid anti allcaps code)

Pleasuring oneself while driving is still a-okay, though.

Oh certainly, I do that all the time.

(seen plenty of videos too wink wink)

Quote from ColeusRattus :

And the speaker phone thing is even more strange as it's not a common practice on TV over here. I can't think of a single time I saw it on TV.

"The Apprentice" started it over here - dont think it was in the US version, but it was in the UK version. And then loads of people copied it, and looked like tools.

Don't worry guys, if she was drunk instead of being on her phone.. she'd have been 200% safer!

Quote from PMD9409 :

Normally after getting some food I have a chicken sandwich in my right hand, drink in left hand, and drive with my knee. Haven't got into an incident yet.

I support this.

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

Obviously never been in the car with a woman then.

My only car accident was because of a woman screaming into my ear. I backed into a parked car because of her.

Quote from Forbin :

Pleasuring oneself while driving is still a-okay, though.

Definitely risky business. Doing 130 KMh while beating one out.

Quote from tristancliffe :

You don't HAVE to listen to the phone. If you're chatting away, and something exciting happens (you skid, someone pulls out in front of you, the lights turn to red when you least expect it) you can stop listening and devote 100% attention to the road. Then you say "sorry, the lights just changed and I had to brake, so I missed the last 5 seconds of what you said". Easy!

Right there is the whole point. 99% of the people out there can't do that. They can't concentrate on listening to the phone through the tiny little speaker smashed up against their ear and concentrate on the road fully. Thus, they concentrate on the phone and make driving secondary. It's easy to pay little concentration and keep the car in the lane. When something unexpected happens though, they never see it because of how little concentration is being put on the driving part.

Not that I even have a phone capable of talking on in the car (prepaid junk with never any minutes on it) but I can't talk on the phone in the car. Why? It is because I find myself the exact opposite. I put very little concentration on listening to the phone because I am driving, thus I am constantly asking them to repeat what they said because I didn't hear it. Driving is primary, phone is secondary as opposed to what I see 99% of the time in that the phone is primary and driving is secondary.

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

Obviously never been in the car with a woman then.

I can't pay attention to people when they talk to me and I'm driving. I can hear noise, but I have no idea what is being said, so will say "yeah, okay, what the hell?" at regular intervals to make it sound as though I know what they are on about. It works well with woman because they don't seem to care how you respond to what they say, you get talked at rather than talked to.

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

I can't pay attention to people when they talk to me and I'm driving. I can hear noise, but I have no idea what is being said, so will say "yeah, okay, what the hell?" at regular intervals to make it sound as though I know what they are on about. It works well with woman because they don't seem to care how you respond to what they say, you get talked at rather than talked to.

Haha, yup brother, can understand you there.

May there be hope for us yet!

Only issue with pretending to pay attention is that someone (especially female) is chatting away and says "So yeah...that's why I hate that bitch, anyway about friday want to go out for dinner" and you say "OKAY WHAT THE HELL?!?" or like "yeah that sounds bad" (because all you need to say when a woman is talking at you is either "aww" or "what.." or "i see" or "yup what a bitch")

She's gonna be like and you're gonna be like and she's gonna be like and you're gonna be like :eclipsee_ and then she's gonna be like illepall and hate you

Quote from PMD9409 :

Oh yeah, forgot the passenger bit.

Choice A - Look 90 degrees to your right at the passenger.
Choice B - Look 10 degrees down at your phone.

Tough choice...

the difference isn't the problem, the problem is that your turning away in the first place.... just don't do it.

It's about the focus of your mind. When glancing at a passenger in conversation, you are not focusing your mind on them. You are still focused on the road. When text messaging, you are focused at your keyboard and focused on the message you are writing.

Same with talking on a cell phone and talking to a passenger. You don't have to concentrate nearly as much talking to someone sitting next to you as you do trying to listen on a tiny little electronic speaker pasted to your ear.