Lorry driver on phone when 11-year-old girl was hit

Y77 · Post by **Y77** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 4:59 pm

Not only lorry drivers, I saw also bus drivers on the phone!

It looks like every other driver is on the phone if you look at them well. Hightime that the police stops focusing on drink driving only and starts to crack down on people on the phone, seriously, like in the UK, where you hardly see anyone on the phone, 60 quid fine it's just what you don't need.

There is then the summer version of morons driving while eating ice cream...

Really strange, the usually shy and not talkative finn can hardly stop talking once is behind the wheel...

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riku2 · Post by **riku2** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 8:27 pm

but from what I read he was using a hands free kit, and that is legal both in Finland and the UK. But you are right that a huge number of drivers in finland are using the phone without hands free kits, if I watch 10 cars go past at traffic lights then perhaps two drivers are on the phone (and one wonders why insurance rates in Finland are several times the rate they are in the UK).

tuttu · Post by **tuttu** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 11:29 pm

Y77 wrote:It looks like every other driver is on the phone if you look at them well. Hightime that the police stops focusing on drink driving only and starts to crack down on people on the phone, seriously, like in the UK, where you hardly see anyone on the phone, 60 quid fine it's just what you don't need.

+1 for that.

me, cycling, i usually see them from far away, driving in a very distracted sort of way.
i always try to see the drivers faces, their expressions tell me whether they're likely to obey even the most basic of traffic rules... often they don't. oblivious.
and of course, glaring and shouting at me, because i seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and it's always the cyclists fault anyway...
i think 2 out of 10 is a realistic average.
does that actually mean that every driver is spending 20% of their time behind the wheel talking on the phone???
it's absolutely f**king dangerous, because it's not only your hands that are distracted, but also your mind (in that sense i think even hand frees are dangerous) - imagine talking divorce with your spouse, how much can you still concentrate on traffic?
and it's not only car drivers, in a way it's even worse with pedestrians - walking & talking dreamily on the bicycle path, unaware of anything - oblivious.

Marsh04 · Post by **Marsh04** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 11:54 pm

There should be crackdown on phone usage.
But there should also be crackdown on cyclists without lights and reflectors and also the ones who mindlessly use the road e.g. the ones riding in the middle of the road and suddenly moving to pedestrian crossing and then again back to middle of the road.

There should be compulsory courses for cyclists as well where they are taught basic rules and how to respect other road users.

007 · Post by **007** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 12:42 am

For the past couple of weeks, I have been watching periscope (streaming app for thjose who are unfamiliar) and have seen people feeding live telecasdts while driving, not only talking but also reading out viewers' commentys....using mobile phones while driving should be punishable by 3-month driving ban (or similar harsh punishments)...

harryc · Post by **harryc** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 12:37 pm

What really takes the cake are these idiot cycle drivers with phones - talking and TEXTING - while going through intersections. Perfect candidates for the Darwin Club!

sinikala · Post by **sinikala** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 5:14 pm

As a pedestrian it never ceases to amaze me the number of drivers here covering one side of their face (thereby cutting their peripheral vision on that side) Especially whilst driving through zebra crossings?! What the hell are they thinking?
A number of times I've had to stop half way over a crossing - when some utter f**ktard has been on the phone and not seen me - or be run over.

That said, today I had to take my car to have its brakes done and katsastus - the first vehicle I encountered after coming out of the car park was a van and the driver had his phone pressed to his ear.
Motivated by this thread I decided to count how many drivers were on the phone ... of 29 oncoming vehicles that I saw during a 2km drive to my local dealer, surprisingly only the first one was on the phone.

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 5:18 pm

The paper reports a European comparison which suggests that only 69.6 percent of Finns believe that road traffic offences are wrong or very wrong, compared to 75 percent in the UK, and 87 percent in Greece.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/thursdays_papers_ ... ds/8175516

Summary: 40+% Finns don't think it's wrong to break traffic laws. It's just that only half of those are on the phone at any one time

Piet · Post by **Piet** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 5:53 pm

It almost makes you get a baby carriage, fill it with bricks and push it onto the zebra when you see a car coming and not stopping due to phone use, that will really teach them.

I have a game for the kids in the car, it is called spot the calling driver... don't be surprised if the count goes over 50 in half an hour

tuttu · Post by **tuttu** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 8:03 pm

harryc wrote:What really takes the cake are these idiot cycle drivers with phones - talking and TEXTING - while going through intersections. Perfect candidates for the Darwin Club!

i totally agree with that.
esp. when they're teens on jopos. giving me arrogant stares when i dare to startle them out of their oblivion.

Piet wrote:It almost makes you get a baby carriage, fill it with bricks and push it onto the zebra when you see a car coming and not stopping due to phone use, that will really teach them.

i have honestly and eagerly been fantasizing sth like this for quite a while.
esp. while i was still living in turku - there, the only way to get across a zebra crossing on a busy road is when you have infants with you.
- or you just start walking (without infants of course), and enjoy the sound of squealing brakes & swearing drivers

Oombongo · Post by **Oombongo** » Wed Dec 16, 2015 12:11 pm

change them with attempted manslaughter. They decided to put the phone under their own consciousness. Then slap with with two great but simple equations of action => reaction and decision => consequences.

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