tinyurl.com/nuq776j
(Telegraph article)
Almost as bad as the woman in her brand new Freelander which was towing a trailer and was cutting me up whilst I was stationary on a roundabout whilst she was eating breakfast from a bowl. A loud toot on the horn made her see the errors of her ways, unfortunately the contents of her cereal bowl, including milk, ended up all over her suit!
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People this stupid should be disqualified from driving for life.
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Then they are more likely to drive unlicenced, they will have little more to lose. At least a lengthy ban gives them the hope of getting their licence back if they behave.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 9 Feb 15 at 13:33
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I understand driving while using any sort of headset is to be banned in France from next month. Mind you, if they take as much notice of that as they do of the ban on holding a phone or texting it won't make a lot of difference. If it isn't enforced, it isn't a law.
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Ah, rules illegal quite a few rally cars and open cars then. Quite common to find headphones and microphones to allow the occupants to talk to each other where mechanical or wind noise is a problem to effective communication.
There is a rule of thumb that says, 'the only good laws are those you can enforce'. Doesn't bother the French though.
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Well they do have good video evidence. I hope they do go and knock on his door. Well done for the cyclist catching up the stopped traffic.
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Good that the driver will be addressed, sort of pleased that the cyclist isn't anyone I know.
Doesn't feel like someone doing their civic duty, feels like the class sneak telling.
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>> Doesn't feel like someone doing their civic duty, feels like the class sneak telling.
How bad does threat to other people's life and limb have to be?
Or is it a thing about cyclists?
I've long thought Coppers or PCSOs on bikes would be good for enforcing phone and similar offences in urban traffic.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 9 Feb 15 at 18:15
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Jeez Bromp, aren't you taking this paranoia / conspiracy theory s***e a bit too far?
I *am* a cyclist and you are being ridiculous.
I don't like sneaks.
As for threat to people's lives, get a life, and preferably a realistic one.
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>> I don't like sneaks.
>> As for threat to people's lives, get a life, and preferably a realistic one.
Heh heh... chalk and cheese. I'm very careful when passing cyclists, but also just as choleric as FMR when subjected to blanket criticism, probably more so because of old age creeping up. The roads themselves are a threat to us all, is about the size of it. And like almost everyone else I don't always stop in a safe place to answer the phone, but often juggle with it.
I won't comment further because I have evenly distributed sympathies here.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Mon 9 Feb 15 at 18:47
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>>
>> I don't like sneaks.
Where's the line between sneak and witness?. Speeding? Driving after three pints? Robbery? Theft? 'Harmless' drug dealing?
>> As for threat to people's lives, get a life, and preferably a realistic one.
Just stop for a minute and consider the damage any car, never mind the two tonne LandDiscoRanger in the vid, can do to a pedestrian or cyclist. Now imagine it under the (lack of) control of someone distracted by TWO screens and TWO keyboards.
Do you still see no threat to life or at least limb?
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 9 Feb 15 at 18:53
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>> Now imagine it under the (lack of) control of someone distracted by TWO screens and TWO keyboards.
Imagine it going through a junction and colliding with your car. Two women pedestrians injured. One loses a leg. Both lose their jobs...
... A bit below the belt perhaps but do we need drivers like this on or roads! No we do not.
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Below the belt? I think the word you're seeking is puerile.
How fast was this car going? How fast was the one 8n my accident going? Which one went across a red light?
Really, puerile.
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And did you read the first line I wrote about the driver being addressed.
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>> And did you read the first line I wrote about the driver being addressed.
Read it but doesn't answer point that you somehow think there was an element of sneakiness in reporting it.
Having been hit and bruised as a pedestrian by a car reversing at walking pace I'm not buying idea that any bump in start>25mph+>stop is inconsequential.
Being squashed against a stopped car by is potentially fatal at any speed. Any clot can do a rear ender with a moment's inattention. I nearly did it in Weedon this afternoon, too busy contemplating how trouble on t'M1 might affect me.
Much, much and much more likely if driver is focussed on a screen.
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Answer *what* point?
Its only your fantasy in relating my feelings to some phantom anti cyclist position that I disagree with - laugh at, indeed.
And he DIDN'T report it. He posted it on YouTube.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Mon 9 Feb 15 at 21:46
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>> And he DIDN'T report it. He posted it on YouTube.
And he should have. Raises questions over his motives. Or are people so caught up in social media they don't think? I wonder if the cyclist ever tweets whilst riding! :-)
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I've been known to tweet while riding, particularly after an especially heavy landing.
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>> >> And he DIDN'T report it. He posted it on YouTube.
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>> And he should have. Raises questions over his motives.
Anecdotally, per cycling websites, the Police in many areas are reluctant to prosecute on reports of this type. Indeed forces go out of their way to find reasons not to do so Riders have even reported being advised that placing the film on You Tube is a breach of data protection.
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>> Riders have even reported being advised that placing the film on You Tube is a breach of data protection.
Codswallop. That would make posting anything on YouTube a breach of dp.
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>> puerile.
Probably. But the damage that 2+ tonne car could do to someone whilst they texted and watched a laptop is considerable. Even at low speed.
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You mean that this "witness" noticed something going on that he considered dangerous and so either spoke to the perpetrator himself or requested that the police do so?
Makes you wonder how it got on YouTube really. Perhaps it was posted by some sanctimonious little tit anxious to exhibit his cleverness and condescending self-appointed position of behavioural guardian.
One assumption is as valid as the other. Unless one is blindly and fantically supportive of one side or the other whatever the curcumstances.
But I'm sure nobody would be that daft.
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Put a camera on a cyclists head and he turns into a vigilante. Kinda wonder why he wasn't looking where he was going, no wonder they get knocked off all the time.
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When I was at university, a friend got run into by a Volvo. He went across the bonnet. The driver was concerned he'd seriously injured him. When he got up and was okay (as was the bike) he was relieved. The driver then got aggressive when he realised his Volvo had been damaged.
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>> The driver was concerned he'd seriously injured him. When he got up and was okay (as was the bike) he was relieved. The driver then got aggressive when he realised his Volvo had been damaged.
When I knocked down and injured a pedestrian many years ago, it was almost entirely his fault but I still worried terribly about it. Much later I just touched the rear wheel of an invisible bicycle on the Paddington roundabout which has hallucinatory orange lighting. The cyclist, a young woman, put her feet down and slightly bruised one of her shins on a pedal. I stopped, apologised and explained, offered to drive her home, to hospital, etc. She said she was OK and we went our ways.
Some considerable time later she came back at me trying to get money. I think some friends of hers had got to her and urged her to try it. I ignored them and they sodded off. In the meantime though I had paid for a new rim for her bike, the old one having been slightly bent in the collision.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Mon 9 Feb 15 at 19:53
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I do think the video should have been handed to the police to investigate. It shouldn't have been uploaded to YouTube and then police find out about it and investigate. But whatever the cyclists real motives... I'm glad he collected evidence.
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This also links back to the automated systems on cars thread. If I'd opted for adaptive cruise control on my A3, since it's a DSG gearbox, you could set it to maintain distance/speed. Any speed from 0 to 100mph. In stop start traffic it would follow the car in front.
Add in active steering... maybe it would stay in lane?
So does that not tempted the 'driver' to do something else?
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Could be a car driver with camera witnessing this, so there is no need for the ritual "cyclists are vigilantes" reflux. Given that traffic police have been reduced by 20%, any witness would help regulate distracted berks who think they are can run an office from behind the wheel! Or shave etc etc.
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I posted this because I thought it would be good to point out that it can be dangerous being distracted and the example in the video took the proverbial biscuit.
I personally could not care who took the video, it was taken, that's all that matters.
Should it have been uploaded to Youtube? Yes, simply because it got to the media who publish the story and hopefully some idiots out there will realize how mad it is to drive whilst being totally distracted. If it saves one life then it is worth it.
I can see why cyclists wear cameras now, as in Russia, accidents have become so commonplace it makes sense to carry some form of evidence because if a car hits another car it is likely to stop. If it hits a cyclist there isn't much in the way to prevent the driver just legging it.
Some cyclists do ask for it though and I am getting fed up of them riding around where I live late at night with no lights, in black jackets and often on the wrong side of the road.
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Somebody I know very well was a small child in Germany in the late 30s and 40s. Makes one very reluctant to 'sneak'.
Said person's grandmother who also lived there at the time spoke only English, being profoundly deaf; small child was well aware of not using English in public although speaking it at home with her. Come 1945, small child was able to translate for (most welcome) invading Americans.
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STV news reports that the driver has been charged by the police. I did not hear what with.
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Driver Using Phone, Laptop and Earphones - Haywain
