Lost for words!!!!

[redken1]

Some of you on here may recall the tragic accident, which occurred in July 2009 on the A36, four miles Frome side of Warminster. A 79 year old male driver of a Volvo attempted to carry out a U-turn on the stretch of dual carriageway approx a mile from the Standerwick junction opposite The Bell pub. The driver pulled out of the lay-by into the path of five bikers, killing one and seriously injuring another. The pensioner was later convicted of causing death by careless driving.

I remember the horrific crash so well because I was on my way to Dilton Marsh that evening to have my current van sign written.

I’ve shared the above with you as I just can’t get my head around a driving manoeuvre I witnessed today at the exact same lay-by where the biker died that night.

I left the market complex in my van this afternoon following behind a small Landrover towing a large box trailer full of sheep. I was in turn followed by a small Volkswagen. As we all came to a halt at the aforementioned junction, the A36 was clear in both directions and all three vehicles exited at the same time.

After Travelling about three quarters of a mile towards Warminster at approx 40mph, the driver of the Landrover and trailer indicated to make a right turn. As there is no junction or even a track on the right of that stretch of road, I thought, he must have knocked the indicator stalk by mistake.

Not at all – I braked to a standstill and to my disbelief, he did a complete u-turn, overshooting the same lay-by, mounting the verge before completing the manoeuvre and heading off in the direction of Frome. All executed whilst engaged in a conversation on his mobile phone which was held in his right hand.

We all make errors and mistakes from time-to-time – this however, was blatant and total disregard for the safety of anyone else on the road. Doesn’t happen often, but I was lost for words.

[Nelly]

See stuff like this on a regular basis Ken. Especially the phone thing. Makes my piss boil >:(

[Rabb]

'Knob' is the only word appropriate for this type of individual.

I see this every day - I don't even get upset about it now - it ruins my day if I do.
However, if I get the chance I do give a series of hand-signals to the person to let them know how I feel about their actions - they usually behave themselves then.

[Conehead]

Disgusting, They should all be shot for putting peoples lives at risk.

[4L1Stroker]

I remember the accident well a terrible incident. There is no excuse for not using a mobile hands free, most phones have a speaker option or use blue tooth, my van is 6 years old and came fitted with a parrot, it finds my phone when i get in and auto answers any call through the radio and only cost £200 fitted. The fine needs to be much bigger and with more points or a ban for using phones or making dangerous manoeuvres. Sadly there are far less plod on the road these days to spot and punish these idiots.

[Dan505]

world is full of morons

[Beamer]

See stuff like this on a regular basis Ken. Especially the phone thing. Makes my piss boil >:(





I think you should get that looked at Nelly.....hot wee wee is never a good thing hehehe ;)

[Beamer]

Whilst on the subject, I was following a bloke in a land rover on the A40 Sunday and I could see in his wing mirror he was on a mobile phone, funnily enough we'd just passed a policeman doing speed checks who was more interested in clocking the speed of the bikes rather than even looking at the driver of the land rover!!!
Didn't dare overtake until he was off the phone !!!

KNOBLET !!!!

[goz1960]

Have to say some of the driving I have witnessed in recent years have been nothing but shocking. On a personal note I have a granddad who is 86 and personally I think he should have his licence removed, Or at least when people get to that sort of age they should have to take some sort of retest refresher.

[Rabb]

I remember the accident well a terrible incident. There is no excuse for not using a mobile hands free, most phones have a speaker option or use blue tooth, my van is 6 years old and came fitted with a parrot, it finds my phone when i get in and auto answers any call through the radio and only cost £200 fitted. The fine needs to be much bigger and with more points or a ban for using phones or making dangerous manoeuvres. Sadly there are far less plod on the road these days to spot and punish these idiots.

Does your Parrot talk?
:) :) :)

[Rabb]

Have to say some of the driving I have witnessed in recent years have been nothing but shocking. On a personal note I have a granddad who is 86 and personally I think he should have his licence removed, Or at least when people get to that sort of age they should have to take some sort of retest refresher.

You do have to re-take your test (I think at 75 years old)

Everyones license expires at that age and I believe you have to re-sit a driving test

[Bonnielass]

I believe at present, there are no laws to say people over the age of 70 need to resit their test, I think there is a form to fill in to inform of any changes in health but this is self filled in. ::)

I don't think all blame should be put on older drivers! There are some pretty bad drivers at all ages!! My personal thought is that all drivers should spend some time on a bike!! Could be interesting!! :o

[4L1Stroker]

I remember the accident well a terrible incident. There is no excuse for not using a mobile hands free, most phones have a speaker option or use blue tooth, my van is 6 years old and came fitted with a parrot, it finds my phone when i get in and auto answers any call through the radio and only cost £200 fitted. The fine needs to be much bigger and with more points or a ban for using phones or making dangerous manoeuvres. Sadly there are far less plod on the road these days to spot and punish these idiots.

Does your Parrot talk?
:) :) :)

Oh yes and she can understand me aswell :)

[wheelers]

could it not be the fault of the council as well? if there is a known black spot it should be watched and acted upon. my eldest is paralysed after a bike accident on the A48 Newport to Cardiff road this year. there is a sign up saying there have been 20+ fatalities on that stretch of road since 2002. he is lucky he is still alive, confined to a wheel chair. Yet, the council have done nothing to stop accidents happening apart from putting up speed signs that show your speed. Wouldnt have stopped the van pulling out of the garage and across a dual carriageway in front of him to go back down the other side....

[Nikki]

could it not be the fault of the council as well? if there is a known black spot it should be watched and acted upon. my eldest is paralysed after a bike accident on the A48 Newport to Cardiff road this year. there is a sign up saying there have been 20+ fatalities on that stretch of road since 2002. he is lucky he is still alive, confined to a wheel chair. Yet, the council have done nothing to stop accidents happening apart from putting up speed signs that show your speed. Wouldnt have stopped the van pulling out of the garage and across a dual carriageway in front of him to go back down the other side....

I'm really sorry to hear about your eldest and do absolutely agree with you.

Sadly people do make terrible mistakes on the road, a moments lost concentration, doing something stupid, going too fast, etc., none of us are immune whether we ride bikes or drive cars/vans/lorries or any other vehicles but when the council fails to take action following a tragedy it's total madness. I never understood why the lay by on the Warminster by pass wasn't simply closed off. :(

[Geordie Stu]

Absolute nutter. You should have a taken a picture of him on his phone & number plate & sent it off the Police.

I had an instance on the M4/M5 Almondsbury interchange. The speed limit is 50mph throught the road works. I was in the passenger seat & to my annoyance a wagon driver under took us while using his iphone watching something & using his forearms to steer the wagon. I wasn't able to take a snap shot but I would have >:(

[Swanny]

Why can't people just pull over to use their phones?? I have a hands free kit in the van but in the car I just ignore the phone. On the bike I leave the fecking thing at home :)

[goz1960]

Have to say some of the driving I have witnessed in recent years have been nothing but shocking. On a personal note I have a granddad who is 86 and personally I think he should have his licence removed, Or at least when people get to that sort of age they should have to take some sort of retest refresher.

You do have to re-take your test (I think at 75 years old)

Everyones license expires at that age and I believe you have to re-sit a driving test


Trust me you do not have to resit a test.

[redken1]

I believe at present, there are no laws to say people over the age of 70 need to resit their test, I think there is a form to fill in to inform of any changes in health but this is self filled in. ::)

I don't think all blame should be put on older drivers! There are some pretty bad drivers at all ages!! My personal thought is that all drivers should spend some time on a bike!! Could be interesting!! :o


I agree Rosie, all too easy to blame age as the main factor when an elderly person is involved in an accident. As long as someone is medically fit, physically and mentally, age shouldn’t come in to it.

Who’s to say that the Volvo driver I referred to in my initial post would not have carried out the same U-turn if he was twenty years younger? I would guess the Landrover driver was in his late forties.

I’m not convinced that holding a mobile is as big of a distraction as conversing with the person on the other end whilst driving. The human brain needs to reach a higher level of concentration to engage in conversation than it does to hold an object. A little experiment for you to try (not to be attempted unless you are confident to do so) which may help to illustrate the point I’m trying to make. Next time you are driving and trying to find a particular address in a city which you are not familiar with, call a friend on your Hands-free phone, and see how difficult it is to execute the two tasks at the same time.


“A study carried out by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), has revealed that driver reaction times, such as the time taken to apply the brakes or steer away from danger, are 30 per cent slower when driving whilst using a hands-free mobile phone than when driving whilst over the legal alcohol limit.”

I’m certainly not advocating the reintroduction of the use of hand-held phones whilst driving - that would be madness. I’m merely pointing out that the current legislation misses the intended target by a distance.

[Swanny]

I can't see how it's more dangerous driving hands free than holding one to your ear???


Personally I don't mind if they ban mobile phones completely. Worst invention next to the atomic bomb.

[redken1]

Swanny, I didn't say it was - read my post again.

[Swanny]

No worries Ken I understood what you wrote, I was just saying hands free must be safer than holding a phone.

[Swanny]

Those bluetooth things must be cheap by now, I don't understand why people don't use them, well apart from looking like a twat :)

[redken1]

I think mine cost a tenner and does the job. Hardly ever use it.

In fairness to you Swanny, looking at my earlier post again, perhaps I could have made the point I was making a bit clearer. I think the main focus is on the act of holding a phone whilst driving, which deflects attention from the greater distraction of engaging in conversation.

Holding a hand-held not in use = medium risk
Conversing on a hands-free = High risk
Holding and conversing on a hand-held = Very high risk (obviously the level of risk increases as the driver has only one hand on the wheel)

Don’t know whether this makes any sense?

Interestingly, I was reading through a lot of research on this and apparently, the human brain needs to reach a higher level of concentration to speak than to listen.

Does this mean that you are less likely to be involved in an accident when the wife calls you on the hands-free set? :P :D ;)

[Swanny]

Interestingly, I was reading through a lot of research on this and apparently, the human brain needs to reach a higher level of concentration to speak than to listen.




It hurts my brain listening to my GF, she doesn't seem to have to concentrate at all whilst talking :-X

[Beamer]

Interestingly, I was reading through a lot of research on this and apparently, the human brain needs to reach a higher level of concentration to speak than to listen.




It hurts my brain listening to my GF, she doesn't seem to have to concentrate at all whilst talking :-X




Ask Kev to teach you the 'selective hearing' procedure.....he seems to have that off to a fine art hehe ;D ;D ;D

[redken1]

Something I have been arguing for ages.

More and more studies are coming to the same conclusion – hands-free is just as much of a distraction as hands–held mobile phones. By no means conclusive evidence, interesting none-the-less - Very recent Which? Report:

To find out how different types of phone use can affect concentration, we sent three researchers to a research centre in Berkshire, where simulators gauged their driving ability and reaction times in various states of distraction. They drove while sober (as a control), and while at the legal alcohol limit. On a separate day they drove while using their phone to chat and text.
For all three researchers, the average time taken to react to hazards when sober and not distracted was just over a second. After drinking, their reaction time rose to 1.2 seconds, and it was fractionally higher still when speaking sober on a hands-free kit or handheld mobile phone. So even though it’s legal to use a hands-free kit while driving, our researchers found it just as distracting as using a handheld mobile.

Today I saw the recycle truck driver using his mobile - with all the activity and potential hazards going on behind his vehicle during rush-hour, how dangerous is that?

[Swanny]

What about talking to a passenger?
I see people using their hands and looking at the person in the seat next to them.

How far will the laws go to stop people being distracted??

[BB]

Wonder what the reaction time of a mother with a car load of kids on the school run or crying baby would be...

[KP]

i see it day in day out in my job, stupid parking, ridiculous driving, and people using mobile phones...... they dont even have 10% concentration on what there doing...... and i would go as far to say its mainly truck drivers that i see doing it ! yes i appreciate there probably lost and trying to find the place they need, but why not stop and do it?

[Swanny]

Wonder what the reaction time of a mother with a car load of kids on the school run or crying baby would be...
I had an ex that would feed and water her brat whilst driving. >:(

[Senna(Dan)]

The sooner vehicle manufaturers invent a system that blocks all mobile signals in vehicles the better, will stop the risk if the phone gets no signal. Sat Navs have incorporated SOS systems so new cars should be incorporating it as standard.

[Swanny]

Or people could be sensible and not drive and use a phone at the same time. They could just pull over if they really must use the phone. Nope that will never happen :-/

[Kevinb]

I don't use my phone whilst driving or on the bike. I don't see the need to as nothing can be that urgent and if you think it is you can pull over even on motorways where you are only about 15 minutes away from either services or a slip road.

[Wes]

I don't have a hands-free kit in the truck, don't want one either, i will pull over if i think it warrants it, or if its the office calling i tend to ignore it anyway ;)

[Trev]

Have to say I agree with redken, I have had hands free as standard on my last few cars and although 'guilty' of using it I do so infrequently, when (in my judgement) least likely to affect my concentration and only if the caller is family as it seems easier (again to me) to be less focused on a conversation that you can easily interrupt/end without causing offence.
Having said all that, I think I've only ever taken one call that I would class as an emergency and there is no good reason to have to use a phone whilst driving (apart from maybe on the tail of kidnapper and talking to the police >:() I guess we do so because we can and if legislated out then civilisation would somehow survive.
Hands free is a couple of levels up from listening to radio or having conversation with a passenger.
Even more worrying is the increase in people using smart phone to txt, watch video or go on faceb*ll*cks, the combination of reduced concentration, manual interaction with the phone and not looking at the road or surroundings is absolutely insane and should be punished to the same level as drink driving - or by having the guilty parties faceb*ll*cks page suspended ;D