Reporting mobile use while driving

I am going to put my views out there. I am a full time cycles. I give up driving over 3 years ago so do a lot of miles in all weathers. So this is a every day problem and so many near misses for me

Driving when using a phone is no diffident than diving under drink or drugs.
Would peolpe get into the car with a driver has had a drink?
Would they drive there family/ kids around when drunk?

The law dose nothing to help and people dont give a F*&&K about it. Just look at how meny people break the law every day by using there phone when driving.

I bet the number of people killed, or RTA's have gone up since the mobile phone.

I feel that the police should hand over catching of people driving when using there phone over to private companies. The companies would film the drivers and car reg in HD then this would help the "is was not me using the car" The phone records would be also used to back up the offence

Up the fine to a £1000 and 6 points for the first time and second time a 12 mouth band and the car being crushed.

Because the private companies get paid from out of the fine, "Yes a bit like piece work " and
yes They would pop up every where filming.

The filming could also be done covert. No big yellow vans like speeding cameras, where people just slow down. In this case just put there phone down till they go past.

Or put covert cameras up on lamppost every where.

If the chance of being court was increased by 10,000 times this would stop a lot of people and save a lot of life.

But the fact is . nothing is going to change and more people are going to get injured or even die and a lot of people are going to break the law and get away with it.

..so me texti ng on my bike isnt going to make me popular then?

Well it had gone a bit quiet on the ticket front. However, back on song. 3 in the last couple of days without even trying. Tonights, was a driver delivering curry. Guess me on my pushbike was a bit difficult to spot when you are looking for house numbers and talking on the phone!

Heres some mobile usage


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEX58XxXcIs

I contacted my local police service and asked if they had a communication line setup for users in Cheshire to report mobile usage in moving vehicles. Alas, they said they do not, but thought it a great idea and asked how current schemes are setup. Today I found the link to the Met Police site, so I will send that to them and let's hope they do something so we can start naming people as offenders. I want to get myself a GoPro cam too and I will edit my video and submit that as evidence too. I am sick to death of incompitent drivers thinking they know what they are doing when they are in mid conversation on the phone. It's bad enough when people are in the car and they don't have to hold a device to their ear sometimes!

Good man!

Saw a guy on a bike on Sunday going a fair lick through my home village while talking away on his phone.

Can I ask how you knew the vehicle was not insured?

Could someone else not have been driving it on their insurance?

Steve

It's possible to check the Motor insurance database, which shows if a vehicle has insurance registered against it. The check can be a week out of date though.

There's a young lad who blazes along a single track road with passing places yabbering on his mobile the whole way. I told him off for it one day but it made no difference. His driving is awful because he is not paying enough attention. Other motorists tell him off but they just get 2 fingers.

I don't cycle that way home all that much because it is a short and muddy route, but if I could catch him & take a picture on my phone of him on his, perhaps the Police might act...

Reported some jackass using his ipad the other week. He had it on his steering wheel . Used the new 101 non-emergency police number. I often report drivers to RoadSafe but it feels like delivering mail to an empty house. Never get a reply. 101 got very excited when I told them what I'd just seen!

Doesn't work if its a business vehicle insured via business insurance.

Is that info not stored in the MID?

That's funny, because where I work we have Crown vehicles which aren't insured at all (they're underwritten directly by the Treasury) and leased vehicles for which we do have business insurance. Both come up as insured on askMID.

Maybe they've changed askmid??

Last year i checked our three company vans, and they didn't come up as having insurance,
even though i knew they were insured.

I did a stupid stupid stupid thing yesterday...

during my morning commute to work a car overtakes me a little close - this does not particularly bother me as it happens all the time. But what did bother me was when I looked though his rear window i saw he was texting, and not paying any attention to me or the road . So anyway I cycled a little faster, caught him up and knocked a couple of times on his rear side window.

He was looking at his phone when i did it, and his look on his face when i did this was was total shock and panic. It was then I realised what a total idiot I had been.

The other stupid thing - once our eyes met I realised he was built like a tank, he could probably kill me with his little finger.

Anyway, red mist got the better of me

You did a very good thing. Big thanks from me. Yes it could have gone horribly wrong, but then, so can riding a bike.

On my commute it's getting to the stage where it would be easier to report those people not using a phone than those who are. I try and make innoffensive gestures to 'say stop' texting or 'watch the road' but quite often they are so busy texting they don't bother looking up!

I don't condone driving and using a mobile in any way whatsoever, but do feel that this forum is becoming heavily populated by camera weilding cyclists who see it as their duty to go round and film every incident, be it a close pass, a lorry jumping a red light, someone not seeing a cyclist etc etc etc.......leave it to the police guys else we cyclists are going to become even less popular. As has been posted elsewhere, we are not law enforcement officers, if you want to be one then join up as a special!
How long before the BMW and Audi drivers start installing forward facing cameras on their dash to record cyclists jumping red lights, riding on pavements etc!