Stricter penalties for driving while distracted (mobile phones etc)

You can report a bad driver using the following webpage:

https://beta.met.police.uk/report/report-a-road-traffic-incident/

We need to get @anon64893700 on the case here with his webcam!

Looking forward to any pics you post

I hope that @anon64893700 would be using a dashcam rather than a webcam.

Ah Andy, that’s what I meant. I’m useless with technology

On my ride home today I counted four cars IN A ROW all using phones while driving in slow traffic on Camberwell road

This is the true danger of driverless cars. Without a human to keep these vehicles from texting their friends, recalibrating their satnav routes and googling “lube job”, they’re a menace to society. Lock up these cars and throw away the keys!

anon64893700 and I sat outside St. Davids one morning and we both commented on the massive volume of people using mobiles in cars. Problem is, with no one to enforce the new penalties drivers will continue to flout the rules.

Haha, very good

Totally agree here. I cycle past dozens of cars every day in which people are happily using mobiles, laptops, putting on make up etc. You can have whatever penalties you like but if it isn’t enforced it is meaningless. I guess in time we can hope that it will become like drink driving - socially unacceptable.

And yet lots of people still do that, like the crash in Bellingham this weekend. Sad really.

I think the recipient of mobile calls from a car should ask if “hands free” as they do not want to be the last call/text the driver Makes!
Perhaps if the police would accept pictures taken by the public as evidence, even if it was not possible to prosecute but gave them the opportunity to issue a warning letter advising the driver they were breaking the law. Might scare people into obeying?
On the same note if cyclists were to have registration plates the ignoring of red lights or pedestrian crossings could also be reported, all to easy to report a car but see more violations of this type on 2 wheels than 4.

Walking through West London today I had a good look at drivers on phones, the ones that impress me the most are those driving liveried vehicles. “Hey I drive a van for the British Heart Foundation and I am on my phone”. Good advert for the BHF. Not.