Driven While Distracted
An online project with which I've frequently toyed would be one to which people could post details of drivers who drive while using non-handsfree mobile phones. You could post up the car type, registration, description of the driver and of the particualr thing they were doing when the fact that they were driving without due care and attention. Perhaps you could even post a photograph taken with a mobile phone camera.
Probably there's something legal that would stop me putting that into practice, which is a pity, because I have many many examples with which I could kick-start the project.
Such as the woman trying to get out of a small parking space on Albert Bridge Road this morning, almost heading right across the wrong side of the road because she was talking on her phone and steering one-handed.
The woman driving the Hyundai Getz, registration number LV52 HXA that would be.
October 3rd, 2005 - 11:54
I know that the Data Protection Act doesn’t apply in regards to prevention and detection of crime.
The feasibility or not of your suggestion would, I suppose, turn on definitions of ‘prevention’, ‘detection’ and ‘crime’.
Sadly, I don’t suppose anybody has ever done a Google on their car reg.
October 9th, 2005 - 17:45
of course there is the issue of taking a pic while driving with your camera phone of the offending (offensive) driver…
October 11th, 2005 - 00:46
Having spent 14 of the last 18 months in Ohio, I’ve come to appreciate the law here on the use of mobile phones when driving. In London it’s often true that when one is following a car traveling slowly, or one that makes some unexpected move, that the driver has a mobile clamped to their ear. In Ohio frequently when a car cut you up or overtook on the inside lane, etc, you found the driver had a cell phone to their ear. To begin with I decided that since most cars were automatics it wasn’t unreasonable to drive with one hand (afterall we do that when changing gear). However, in addition, they more than often had a cup of coffee in the other hand or a burger or eyeliner, which led me to wonder which part of their anatomy they were using to drive the vehicle. When I mentioned this to a friend, they simply said ‘well, haven’t you learned to drive with your knees?’! Multi-tasking – yeah!
October 23rd, 2005 - 14:34
Of course Jon, your need to build this project could just be a sign that you are rapidly moving towards the Curmudgeonly Middle Aged section of the Populace.
I have found that my recent illness has escalated my own progress in this direction, recently having written to the Independent to bemoan the plague of free-sheet muggers that have now joined charity-muggers on our city streets… fruggers to join chuggers.
And.
having only recently abandoned my walking stick as my legs have mended, I do have fond memories of the brief ability I had to wave it into the air whilst shouting “bl**dy pavement cyclists”.
Get yourself a walking stick J, you can wave it at inconsiderate drivers.
(although, during my months of crippledom, I personally found cyclists the major nuisance)
Pete