Driving while distracted

[Lou Girardin]

It was reported this morning that John Kelly (Acting Top Traffic Cop) wants a new law (another one!) to cover people driving while phoning, doing make up, reading etc. While I'm all in favour of nailing these morons, do we need yet another law? How will they prove distraction without also having the elements of carless driving, so why don't they use that?
What about all the distractions the Plods have too, Stalker, R/T, etc. Note: I didn't say donut eating.
But I'm damn sure that if I were a Plod, I'd park at Tamaki drive in summer and fill a ticket book or three in an hour and have the rest of the shift free to perve.

[Deano]

It was reported this morning that John Kelly (Acting Top Traffic Cop) wants a new law (another one!) to cover people driving while phoning, doing make up, reading etc. While I'm all in favour of nailing these morons, do we need yet another law? How will they prove distraction without also having the elements of carless driving, so why don't they use that?
What about all the distractions the Plods have too, Stalker, R/T, etc. Note: I didn't say donut eating.
But I'm damn sure that if I were a Plod, I'd park at Tamaki drive in summer and fill a ticket book or three in an hour and have the rest of the shift free to perve.

Thats part of the problem with making laws so specific - didn't the UK introduce a law banning cellphone conversations while driving but forgot to mention texting ?

[Swoop]

I agree totally. Cagers in particular need less distractions . The bare minimum of a hands-free set perhaps??
Even worse though, and never mentioned, is driving with a bad head cold / 'flu. That can be dynamite, and much worse than even being drunk!

Let's see what our elected representatives do....

[MikeL]

Well I found out yesterday that the insurance company is writing off my car. My son took it out last week and while he was waiting in Princes St to turn in to a car park some f*ckwit ploughed into the back of him. Turns out the idiot was texting...

While obviously I'm mildly upset by this turn of events, I can't see that ranting and raving about the law is called for. There are provisions already for this sort of thing and I can't see that any tightening up is called for.

This strikes me as typical of the "fence at the top of the cliff mentality": laudable in principle to reduce risk factors rather than focus on responsibility, but having the practical effect, if taken to the logical conclusion, of removing all risk and all responsibility, therefore all freedom. To (possibly) prevent 4 deaths a year, a huge number of motorists will be fined (and perhaps incur demerit points) for doing something which in the individual circumstances was not demonstrably unsafe, just because a cop happened to be lying in wait...

On the other hand where it can be shown that distraction due to cellphone or other reason was a factor in an accident, or contributed to clearly dangerous driving, a penalty is entirely warranted and deserved.

[SPman]

You guys are just jealous you cant text while driving/riding.......

[ManDownUnder]

I think they should outlaw distractions.

* Stop the planes flying in and out of Whenuapai - I love watching the bastards and if I hit something it'd be all their fault.
* The scantily clad women featured on the backs of buses
* The billboards with too much writing on them (or a great punchline) posted right by the roads forcing you to look up to the right
* Cute women wearing too little clothing

Yup - book them all. I'll even help cuff and detain the women...

[judgeshock]

I agree driver distraction is not flash.The amount of people i see failing to signal whilst turning or failing to stop when they should because they are on the phone.

Its pretty scary and i certainly slow down when i see this happen. Im not totally innocent myself however, with summer here its hard not to stare at some of the hotties walking around in not much.

[thehollowmen]

of carless driving

Carless driving?
O_o

[Big Dave]

'bout fucking time.

[N4CR]

Carless driving?
O_o

Livestock you idiot.

Hmm... I smell a money making type revenue gathering speeding thingy, but in other ways yeah we have all been affected by joe and joesphine blogg's on the cellphone or fiddling with all the extra crap cages come with. I think it should be used with discretion just like the +10kmh rule.

[Lou Girardin]

Carless driving?
O_o

A little known statute designed to prevent all the worn denim and pieces of skin being strewn over the roads.

[ManDownUnder]

'bout fucking time.

7:00pm through 5:00am...? What about it?

[Big Dave]

Yeah - I prefer a bit of morning glory.

[bugjuice]

You guys are just jealous you cant text while driving/riding.......

what, you can't? you're just not trying hard enough...


I remember a few years back, some chick (quite nice too, if I remember rightly) got pulled over, and ticketed. She couldn't believe it. She refused to pay the ticket. It went to court. She got herself a good lawyer. The lawyer was crap and failed. She had to pay the ticket, court costs, and everything else. The whole thing stretched out for a month or so. The media loved the story, everyone else doing the same thing started to panic that if they did the same while driving past a cop, would they get a ticket too...???? And all that for taking a drink from a water bottle while driving..

[MisterD]

Thats part of the problem with making laws so specific - didn't the UK introduce a law banning cellphone conversations while driving but forgot to mention texting ?

I don't know about the phone/ text thing, but they did introduce yet another law...labour governments arrragggh...when all along we had "Driving without due care and attention" which would seem to cover the whole shebang anyway. Doesn't something like that exist here?