Mobile phones & driving = a bad idea

[Deleted member 65149]

+1. For this very reason I would be happy to see even hands free calls abolished. I might be unpopular in saying this, but I have found that even having Viseeo and total handsfree, my attention wanders if talking on the phone whilst driving. Concentration is not 100% and to me that is dangerous.

Not unpopular with me. I'd vote for a complete ban on all phone use whilst at the wheel of a vehicle.

Going back to the OP, I hope your wife is now feeling better. Once a claim is put into an insurance company, even years later you will be bothered by ambulance chasing accident claims vultures wanting you to make a claim.
Two years after my non fault bump, I still get them with annoying regularity.

It's easy to tell the callers to f off. Sign up for the Telephone Preference Service and it'll be illegal for them to call you - they call themselves lawyers so should know this. But answering a few rogue phone calls is a lot less hassle than trying to claim medical expenses for an unreported incident.

 

[markjay]

They are committing an offence. A social care worker in our village was successfully prosecuted when she pulled up at the side of a residential road and used her mobile with the engine running. Unjust, perhaps, but against the letter of the law.

I was parking the car inside the US Embassy compound in Mayfair. I picked-up the phone in my hand while the car was still moving. An armed police officer knocked on the window and said 'You are still on a public road, Sir'. He had a point...

 

[Deleted member 65149]

I was parking the car inside the US Embassy compound in Mayfair. I picked-up the phone in my hand while the car was still moving. An armed police officer knocked on the window and said 'You are still on a public road, Sir'. He had a point...

Hopefully, next time he'll shoot you!

 

[finisterre]

A trifle harsh.

Probably.

 

[219]

Just as an update to this . Jan took one of my anti-inflammatory tablets when going to bed the night of the incident , and slept until 2pm the following day . On getting up the sore back and neck had gone away . All the same , she went to the doc for a check over later that afternoon , and was told just to rest and keep doing what she was doing - so apparently none the worse for the incident .

Jan had an anxious phone call from the young lad , last night , asking how she was and that she hadn't changed her mind about letting them fix the car . They were trying to get her to take the car up this morning , but I got her to put it off until tomorrow when I can be there .

I will make it very clear that they are very lucky we are letting them off so lightly , and that we expect a proper repair to the car in return for this ( nonetheless , I will still play up Jan's sore back and neck when negotiating the repair and emphasise it could easily have been much worse ) . I've already checked the closure of the tailgate and the shut lines around the boot floor and the plastic tools tray and spare wheel carrier under the floor - all of which seems straight and true - I just need to get the car up on my ramps tomorrow morning in daylight ( it's always dark when I get home ) and have a good look underneath for any other damage , besides seeing exactly what damage has been done to the exhaust .
The only reasons I didn't immediately go down the insurance route is that I don't want the car written off over this , which with it being 14 years old and only worth a few hundred would have been very likely , besides even a non fault claim on her insurance could have increased both our premiums at renewal ( she is a named driver on my cars as well ) . The other party has a lot more reason not to want it reported .

 

[meeeb]

If there is an injury is it not a requirement to inform the Police?

In simple terms if you are the driver of a motor vehicle on a road involved in an accident and damage is caused to property other than your own, and names and addresses of driver (you) and vehicle owner, and identification mark of vehicle, are exchanged there's no need to report a non-injury accident. If injuries are sustained by anyone other than the driver (you), then the driver is required to also give in addition to the foregoing, insurance details to anyone reasonably requiring them. If you comply with these requirements you don't need to report to the police.

If details are not exchanged as required the accident must be reported to the police and insurance produced to them as soon as possible and in any case within 24 hours. This means that if you report the accident say 16 hours after it happened and it is discovered that you could have reported it earlier, you have committed an offence.

Some people may consider it safer to report injury accidents to the police in any event.

 

[Deleted member 6183]

Just as an update to this . Jan took one of my anti-inflammatory tablets when going to bed the night of the incident , and slept until 2pm the following day . On getting up the sore back and neck had gone away . All the same , she went to the doc for a check over later that afternoon , and was told just to rest and keep doing what she was doing - so apparently none the worse for the incident .

Jan had an anxious phone call from the young lad , last night , asking how she was and that she hadn't changed her mind about letting them fix the car . They were trying to get her to take the car up this morning , but I got her to put it off until tomorrow when I can be there .

I will make it very clear that they are very lucky we are letting them off so lightly , and that we expect a proper repair to the car in return for this ( nonetheless , I will still play up Jan's sore back and neck when negotiating the repair and emphasise it could easily have been much worse ) . I've already checked the closure of the tailgate and the shut lines around the boot floor and the plastic tools tray and spare wheel carrier under the floor - all of which seems straight and true - I just need to get the car up on my ramps tomorrow morning in daylight ( it's always dark when I get home ) and have a good look underneath for any other damage , besides seeing exactly what damage has been done to the exhaust .
The only reasons I didn't immediately go down the insurance route is that I don't want the car written off over this , which with it being 14 years old and only worth a few hundred would have been very likely , besides even a non fault claim on her insurance could have increased both our premiums at renewal ( she is a named driver on my cars as well ) . The other party has a lot more reason not to want it reported .

Could you not be a little more gracious over this rather than telling people how lucky they are and playing up fictitious injuries?

 

[219]

I'm not making up any fictitious injury !

Jan DID have a sore back and neck on the night of the incident , that has now gone away - but it COULD easily have been worse , no thanks to the person who rear ended her - he is very lucky that it wasn't when it easily could have been worse .

I'm just emphasising that he is very lucky she wasn't injured more seriously .

Is that clearer ?

 

[itaintemeyouno]

Could you not be a little more gracious over this rather than telling people how lucky they are and playing up fictitious injuries?

Ummm, well he isn't going down the insurance route which would have meant the young driver's insurance going through the roof. i think that is plenty gracious enough. Some would say too gracious.

 

[abecketts]

Sorry to hear, sounds similar to Lynn's accident on 1st May 2013, driver that hit her was on the phone and Lynn was turning into a garage. Lynn is still in pain from the impact of her head hitting the headrest. Do get the medics to check her thoroughly.

 

[markjay]

Could you not be a little more gracious over this rather than telling people how lucky they are and playing up fictitious injuries?

You appear to be assuming that if the injury was real the OP would have made a claim for financial compensation, and since he did not do so, the injury must be fictitious...?

I, on the other hand, find it quite believable that someone did suffer actual injury and yet chose not to make a claim.

 

[Deleted member 6183]

You appear to be assuming that if the injury was real the OP would have made a claim for financial compensation, and since he did not do so, the injury must be fictitious...?

I, on the other hand, find it quite believable that someone did suffer actual injury and yet chose not to make a claim.

No, I am assuming nothing. It seems that you have made the assumption.

For clarity, OP has stated that there is no injury or pain yet plans to 'play up Jan's sore back and neck when negotiating the repair' and also 'I will make it very clear that they are very lucky we are letting them off so lightly'.

I find this approach ungracious that is all.

On reflection it has nothing to do with me but it struck a chord at the time, I am noticing more of late that people's reactions to situations are becoming rather dramatic to say the least.

Pontoneer, you play it whichever way you like, I'll not be concerned. I just hope that you don't have to come back to this thread bleating because the kid takes offense at your approach and decides to become uncooperative and go through insurance thus writing your car off. (Also creating bad feeling in your locality between them and you).

 

[paul73mt]

sorry to hear but i had a crash some years ago 2001 , i had a woman come round a roundabout the wrong way and hit me head on !!!! (no joke) even to this day i still get neck ache when i do some jobs. I was off work for 5 weeks and couldn't drive for 2 of them. When you get the car repaired get something in wrighting to say its going to be repaired how you want it , it maybe an idea to get someone to do a report on it and then say thats what needs doing to it?? (only a idea)

 

[219]

As it happens , we went up to the garage on Saturday morning and there was no need to say anything : the father and son went out of their way to apologise once again , the car went up on the ramp to check for hidden damage ( there wasn't any ) the exhaust blow was traced to the join between the front and middle sections ( easily fixed ) and , besides the new bumper , which they said they would supply and fit , they noticed a minor dent in the tailgate which we hadn't spotted , so that is going to be resprayed as well . Since they were going to be painting , I asked them to tidy up the front wheel arches , both of which are starting to rust , with us paying for that part .

So no quibbling , trying to get out of anything , and a proper repair being done with a new bumper - all very amicable . We left the car with them and should get it back midweek .

 

[Stratman]

Glad to hear of good outcomes for both your wife and the car.

As for using hand held phones while driving, I can't understand why the police haven't been given the power to confiscate them on the spot.

 

[meeeb]

Glad to hear of good outcomes for both your wife and the car.

As for using hand held phones while driving, I can't understand why the police haven't been given the power to confiscate them on the spot.

One reason immediately springs to mind; in our ludicrously litigious country where our legal system is governed by greedy lawyers and judges p***ing up each other's backside, if anything were to befall someone whose phone had been confiscated in such a way and the situation was exacerbated by the lack of a phone, the police would be held liable.

You should know that in this country the welfare and rights of miscreants always gets priority over the protection of others. You only have to keep abreast of the news to know that.

 

[Bellow]

As for using hand held phones while driving, I can't understand why the police haven't been given the power to confiscate them on the spot.

Data protection/privacy?

 

[219]

One reason immediately springs to mind; in our ludicrously litigious country where our legal system is governed by greedy lawyers and judges p***ing up each other's backside, if anything were to befall someone whose phone had been confiscated in such a way and the situation was exacerbated by the lack of a phone, the police would be held liable.

Perhaps not if immediate seizure and destruction of the handset was made the proscribed penalty for that offence , much as forfeiture and destruction of uninsured vehicles has already become .

The police would then simply be the enforcers of that law , which had been enacted by the government .

I'm sure many officers would be quite happy to place a handset on the ground and then either stamp on it with a size 10 or else drive over it .

 

[Dryce]

As for using hand held phones while driving, I can't understand why the police haven't been given the power to confiscate them on the spot.

Be careful what you wish for.

My feeling is that the police are not as good as observing phone use in a car as they might think. Moreover the law or at least its interpretation isn't as robust as I think it should be in what constitutes use.

 

[Scott_F]

I'm sure many officers would be quite happy to place a handset on the ground and then either stamp on it with a size 10 or else drive over it .

Or to sell an almost new iPhone 6 to their mate.