Driver on phone killed woman

[OpenMind]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... w_08082006



Driver on phone killed woman

By Robert Colvile

(Filed: 08/08/2006)

A lorry driver who killed a woman when he crashed into a queue of traffic while using his mobile phone was jailed for four years yesterday.



John Payne's seven-and-a-half-ton vehicle was travelling at 47mph when it hit 23-year-old Trinity Taylor's Peugeot 106 on the M3 near Basingstoke last October.

The lorry rolled over Miss Taylor's car, crushing it so badly that another motorist was unable to reach inside the car to feel her pulse, the court heard.

After being cut free by the emergency services, she was pronounced dead at the scene. She died from chest and head injuries.

A jury at Winchester Crown Court heard that Payne, 31, from Chesham, Bucks, had been fiddling with his new mobile phone as he drove at 61mph.

As a result, he failed to notice signs warning of queues ahead or, until the very last minute, the queue itself, which was visible from 900 yards away.

William Fowell, a colleague who was in the cab with Payne, recalled him shouting "Oh s**t!" as he braked and realised they could not stop in time, before colliding with Miss Taylor's hatchback, which caught fire.

Six other vehicles were severely damaged in the resulting pile-up.

Andy Houston, prosecuting, told the court that a driver had described the impact as "like being in a washing machine".

Payne, who worked for the transport firm Lane Group and was carrying a cargo of jacuzzis, was uninjured and was arrested at the scene.

At first he denied having used his phone, only admitting it the week before his trial for causing death by dangerous driving. His lawyer, Ian Lawrie, told the court that Payne accepted that using the phone was "an appalling error of judgment".

Sentencing him, Judge Michael Brodrick said: "Anyone wanting an illustration of the dangers of using mobile phones in a vehicle only has to look at the facts of this case."

He also disqualified Payne from driving for seven years.

Miss Taylor, a legal worker from Aldershot, Hants, had given up her job to take care of her mother while she was unwell.

After the hearing, her sister, Kristy Anderson, demanded harsher penalties for drivers caught using mobile phones. "Trinity was the life of our family and now when I see people day to day using their phones while driving it angers me beyond belief," she said.

"People need to realise the devastation that this can cause."

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006.

[chonsigirl]

I am glad he was sentenced, what a horrible shame that innocent woman died. Talking on cell phones causes how many accidents a year!

[Bryn Mawr]

chonsigirl wrote: I am glad he was sentenced, what a horrible shame that innocent woman died. Talking on cell phones causes how many accidents a year!


It's been illegal here for a couple of years but virtually no-one is procecuted for it and you see people jabberring away all the time.

[chonsigirl]

Yes, it is illegal here too, but a woman ran into my car while yakking on hers-she never saw me stopped at a red light! What a loss for that poor woman's family.

[woppy71]

What a sad story for all concerned.

I do think that we need harsher penalties for bad driving and also a harsher test in the first place.



a harsher test would ensure a greater standard of driving in the first place. A re-test after the first year might also be a good thing with some sort of refresher training / assesment every three years or so.

I know a lot of people would think that is draconian, but surely anything that has a good chance of reducing accidents on the roads has got to be a good thing.

One thing that I think is worth noting is that risk taking seems to be a built in trait of the human race, which is something that I believe only education may reduce.

Once again, a sad turn of events for all concerned:(

[OpenMind]

For years now, I have carried my phone in my jeans pocket. When I'm driving, it is impossible to extract the phone, the pocket is too tight. I have to pull over and stop in order to check who called. Often, I will wait till I get to my destination anyway.

In England, it is a legal requirement to pull over and turn off the engine when using a hand-held phone. Hands-free phones are legal to use while driving.

But, as Bryn says, no one seems to get prosecuted. I see people using their phones while driving almost every day. It strikes me, therefore, that this is a common attitude to driving in general.

I would like to report these people, but I am usually driving and not in a position to get their reg. no. without compromising my own driving safety. Besides, my confidence in the police force to take any action is low.

[Bryn Mawr]

woppy71 wrote:

I know a lot of people would think that is draconian, but surely anything that has a good chance of reducing accidents on the roads has got to be a good thing.




It would be many years before enough examiners could be trained and the infrastructure put in place to regularly retest drives on a large scale.

The main thing that would reduce accidents on the road would be to get the traffic police back onto the road and stop this obsessive reliance on speed cameras.

Without a presence on the road people think they can get away with anything.

[woppy71]

Bryn Mawr wrote: It would be many years before enough examiners could be trained and the infrastructure put in place to regularly retest drives on a large scale.

The main thing that would reduce accidents on the road would be to get the traffic police back onto the road and stop this obsessive reliance on speed cameras.

Without a presence on the road people think they can get away with anything.


Yep, i know, but lets hope they start working towards something like that soon.

I fully agree with you about getting the police back on the road.

[CheshireCat]

How in the world did we live before cell phones? I can't stand the things, I only recently got one, and that serves as my home phone as well. Even here at work you see people with them glued to their ears.

[Bill Sikes]

Bryn Mawr wrote: (using a hand-held 'phone) has been illegal here for a couple of years but virtually no-one is procecuted for it and you see people jabberring away all the time.


Unfortunately it is not endorsable - if it was, I think it would be a different

story. The TRL say that using a 'phone on the move is at least as likely to

cause a crash as driving (just) over the drink-drive limit:

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2077

The whole report:

http://info.directline.com/xxx/news.nsf ... Report.pdf

[Bill Sikes]

woppy71 wrote: I do think that we need harsher penalties for bad driving and also a harsher test in the first place.



a harsher test would ensure a greater standard of driving in the first place. A re-test after the first year might also be a good thing with some sort of refresher training / assesment every three years or so.


The easiest way of reducing the crash and casualty rate would be to raise

the driving age to at least 21.

The test is actually quite reasonable, IMO, and there are penalties (i.e. losing

your licence and having to successfully re-take the driving test) for new drivers

who accumulate 6 points on their licence within two years of passing their test.

[Bill Sikes]

CheshireCat wrote: How in the world did we live before cell phones? I can't stand the things, I only recently got one (...)


Heh. I didn't.

[haggis]

I don't drive but when in the car with my hubby we see people on their mobiles all the time. Many a time Ihave thought of taking their registration and reporting them to the police but with no proof Isoppose nothing would happen

[Hugh Janus]

This is a law that is unenforcible. (is that a real word?) Perhaps if the police were to actually prosecute the "phone" offenders, and have them shown to be prosecuted in all the daily newspapers, then the rest of the silly sods, talking on the phone and driving, would see that they could be next.

A three month ban for being caught out should be mandatory. That would shut the buggers up. And it would leave less congestion.

I am/was a white van man, but I use a bluetooth headset. However I would not talk if I were in some kind of road crisis.

I value my license. And no smart arse is gonna remove it from me. It took me a long time to get...

[theia]

Hearing about tragic events like this one, always makes me go cold. I try to follow the rules of the road when I'm driving but I make mistakes sometimes...no, I don't use my mobile phone when driving (although I did on a couple of occasions a few years ago) but any one of my driving errors, caused by poor judgment or a lapse in concentration, could mean the death of someone given the "wrong circumstances." It doesn't bear thinking about too much...or should I be thinking about it more? I don't know...

[Bill Sikes]

Hugh Janus wrote: This is a law that is unenforcible. (is that a real word?) Perhaps if the police were to actually prosecute the "phone" offenders, and have them shown to be prosecuted in all the daily newspapers, then the rest of the silly sods, talking on the phone and driving, would see that they could be next.


From:

http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/re ... 06-013.pdf

"An informal survey of police forces suggested that more than 50,000 fixed

penalties were issued in 2004 for using mobile phones, although these apparently

included not having proper control of a vehicle".

There was a move last year to make using a hand-held mobile phone while driving

an endorsable offence, but I don't know what happened to it.

[OpenMind]

Bill Sikes wrote: From:



http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/re ... 06-013.pdf



"An informal survey of police forces suggested that more than 50,000 fixed

penalties were issued in 2004 for using mobile phones, although these apparently

included not having proper control of a vehicle".



There was a move last year to make using a hand-held mobile phone while driving

an endorsable offence, but I don't know what happened to it.


I would like to see it put on a par with dangerous driving.

[Bill Sikes]

OpenMind wrote: (on the 'phone while driving) I would like to see it put on a par with dangerous driving.


Drink driving, according to the TRL, would be a close parallel. AOL, anyway,

the penalty is too low.

[RedGlitter]

My ridiculous friend is never without that dang phone. For a year she used it when we were in the car until I finally told her no more. However she still insists on calling me while she's driving even though she knows I hate it. Next time she does it I'm going to end the call until she can get out of the car. It's stupid stuff too- checking on the boyfriend, checking if he called, calling her friends. None of that crap matters when she's driving!!! As it is now, she's hit a load of rabbits and claims she wasn't on her cell but I'm no turnip. :-5

[Bill Sikes]

Bill Sikes;362960 wrote:

Originally Posted by OpenMind

(on the 'phone while driving) I would like to see it put on a par with dangerous driving.

Drink driving, according to the TRL, would be a close parallel. AOL, anyway,

the penalty is too low.


At least the offence will now be endorsable (and the level of fine is going up):

"Mobile calls could cost drivers three points"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... bile23.xml

"According to Home Office figures, 74,000 penalty notices were issued in 2004 to motorists who were using a mobile phone while driving."

Unfortunately hands-free sets are still acceptable (unless you crash whilst using

one).

[Bill Sikes]

Hamster;526707 wrote: Bill the article says "hands-free phones"??

Motorists using hands-free phones could receive three points on their licences and a £60 fine from next month if they are considered by police not to be in control of their vehicle.


It says just what it means! Always for hand-held, sometimes for hands-free

(pity - the use of *any* 'phone when driving increases risk of incidents by

quite a large amount).

[SuzyB]

Hamster;526769 wrote: I would agree...anything like that is distracting....Sat Navs, DVD players in the back, cd's, radio etc even some passengers constitute a major distraction in my opinion. I guess it depends where you draw the line?


When the kids were younger i am the first to admit my driving was at times bad, i often kept telling them off and was half watching them instead of the road. At one point i started walking most places with them as i felt that they were too much of a distraction.

[Bill Sikes]

Hamster;526769 wrote: I would agree...anything like that is distracting....Sat Navs, DVD players in the back, cd's, radio etc even some passengers constitute a major distraction in my opinion. I guess it depends where you draw the line?


Absolutely - I draw the line at serious problems, such as driving when over

the drink-drive limit, or using telephones of any sort when driving, which

have both been proven to be serious issues. Personally, I do not drive and

listen to music, either, and say "let me concentrate" (i.e. "be quiet!") to

passengers when I'm negotiating road hazards.

FYI, Direct Line insurance commissioned a report from the TRL. In the report,

which you can view at:

http://info.directline.com/xxx/news.nsf ... Report.pdf

it says in the "key findings" section, and I quote:

TRL report wrote:

• Hands-free was safer than using hand-held mobile phones. However, the

conversation itself is a major distraction, with the use of hands-free phones

carrying hidden dangers. As a result of this finding, even the use of hands-

free proved more dangerous than driving under the influence of alcohol.

This study demonstrates beyond doubt that using a mobile phone when driving

significantly impairs the driver’s attention to potentially hazardous situations,

more so than having a blood alcohol level at the UK legal limit (80mg/100ml).




It's worth looking at the whole report.



Again: "As a result of this finding, even the use of hands-free proved more

dangerous than driving under the influence of alcohol." - so don't exceed

the drink-drive limit, OR USE A TELEPHONE when driving!

[CARLA]

Doin't get me started on this one. Since when do we need to network in our cars going 70 or 80 miles an hour. The have cars that can parallel park now, and know when you had to much to drink. I say next is cars that can tell when you not using hands free talking.

My opinion is talk on the phone in a car is just as dangerous as drunk driving, and there are many more tallking on their phones daily than are driving drunk. I have managed to get though my whole adult like without a cell phone we didn't have them in my day.

Now I have one for emergency and safety. If I get a call in the car I let in go to voicemail and pull over and listen to it. It is not the end of the world to miss a flippin call...

[Marie5656]

There had been a push to make it a moving violation here...meaning points on license. Not sure it will pass, though.

This is why I always pull over when I need to answer or make a call.