Hacker News Reader

Comment by dazc | Hacker News Reader

A sober reminder of why this is too little, too late...

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/31/lorry-driver...

I am terrified of the day I will also witness this happening, or worse, become a victim. Because I walk a lot , I see drivers everywhere constantly holding their phones on one hand while driving with the other, barely looking forward to watch the road, just like the lorry driver in question, who killed a whole family while scrolling through music on his phone, did. It's a matter of time, people should be banned from driving as soon as can finally get a fucking computer to do it for us. The carnage must stop and I am honestly shocked the number of people dying is not an order of magnitude higher given the behaviour I see from drivers everywhere, even in the richest, most "law-abiding" countries (let alone elsewhere).

Ah yes I remember that. It’s horrible.

Every day I see people still doing it though here in London. There is no excuse. Not one.

Actually two weeks ago there was a huge Jewsons truck blocking an entire junction while driver was on his phone. The driver in front of me who was blocked confronted him and he told her to fuck off and what was she going to do about it. She used her phone to take a photo of him on his. I hope something is done. Some people are so arrogant and thoughtless.

Do you drive on the roads in the UK? I don't think legislation will fix the culture of not caring enough to recognize speed limit signs. People are constantly distracted or just stupid. Regardless of whether the speed limit is 20 or 30, they all choose to drive at 25. In fact, next to no-one is actually following the 20mph speed limit in most cases. Motorway driving isn't any better, you either do well below 70 or well above it. There's people leaving 100m stretches between them and the next car when there's congestion. Road markings are taken to be mere suggestions. And the road markings themselves are rubbish - how am I supposed to know which lane must I take if the only signs instructing me of that are under the cars in front of me?

I wholeheartedly agree that phones shouldn't be used during driving, but to drive safer and more efficiently, the country needs a change in driving culture.

The UK has amongst the safest roads in the world, however you choose to measure it.

There is always room for improvement, but to suggest the UK has a poor driving safety culture is demonstrably false.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...

It's true the UK has "safer" streets than other countries, but that doesn't mean it's great.

2.9 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year... That means that if everyone lived in a medium sized town of 100,000 people, each town would have nearly 3 of its inhabitants killed on the roads per year. Over a period of , say, 10 years, you 're fairly likely to know or be related to one of them. It's still pretty terrible, even if other places on this planet have even much worse.

You are correct although this is more a case of other countries being worse rather than us being particularly well-behaved.

I think it varies by area. In suburban parts of West London I can guarantee on any day I walk along roads near my house that I will observe unsafe driving - it usually doesn't result in an accident but it's a numbers game and eventually will cause damage that's fully avoidable.

What I find especially odd recently are the cases of people being reckless with their own cars suffering as a result - I get that whilst driving a company vehicle, certain types of people will turn a blind eye with it, but the number of cases of people scraping their own car's bumpers as they fly over speed bumps is definitely on the rise. I'm not suggesting they willfully set out to scrape them, but it's obvious to a bystander this will happen given the way they drive and don't break in time. It's as if they haven't the forethought to connect their behaviour and the outcome.

It's really hard to compare these. Netherlands has 4.7 per 1 billion vehicle-km, UK 3.9. I'd guess this is because population density (more crossings) and a way more cyclist in Netherlands. Cycling is safer in Netherlands than in UK. (I have cycled quite a bit in both places)

Oh, it's safe, but what's the point of using a car if you'll reach your destination slower than if you were to use public transportation? I'm not arguing that it's too safe, but I'm arguing that it's as safe coincidentally, and the driving culture still has lots of room for improvement.

The number of deaths is indeed low.

How's the number of traffic-related injuries?

I completely agree. Alas, enforcement is minimal and the worst offenders seem, correctly, to believe there is virtually no chance of being caught.

The driver was jailed for 10 years so I don't get your point; the behaviour was already illegal since the driver was not paying attention and wasn't in control of his vehicle.

Not OP but perhaps having a law in place and that law enforced would have made the accident less likely in the first place.

We all know making things illegal means no one will ever do them again, obviously /s

[Replying to pre-edit comment before the semicolon] An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure (or punishment, in this case- sentencing offenders won't bring anyone back to life).

The four who might have still been alive today had it been illegal to use a phone will driving see OP's point

/edit since you've edited your comment/ The law around usage of a phone whilst driving was not so clear cut. A minor UK celebrity famously evaded prosecution by claiming he wasn't using a phone 'as a phone' when he was caught.

https://www.ashmanssolicitors.com/blog/have-you-been-caught-...

Re the case of the lorry driver: There was video footage of him browsing his phone, he killed 4 people. This isn't normally the case which is why many people think it's OK to drive whilst distracted by their phones ('multi-tasking' is the phrase I think they often use?).

If laws around usage of mobile phones whilst driving were tightened up and rigorously enforced from the outset then it is less likely such a tragedy would have happened.

This was my point. As well as a gentle reminder for anyone who thinks there are never going to be serious consequences of doing similar.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com