Mobile Phones and Driving...

[Chas123456789]

Probably already been asked but why is it when we see one of these "Clips of Police Footage" shows on TV where the police are stopping a driver for using a mobile phone whilst driving the police are able to talk using a similar handset with (Apparently) immunity from the distractions the target driver is supposed to be suffering. And don't give me the crap about hands-free equipment in police cars... that's mostly bullshit, they do exactly the same as the guy they are chasing.

I think the use of radio came as a big "Ego" trip for most police and gave them some feeling of superiority over the general public who once mobile were deaf and dumb and easy quarry. Nowadays the public are equal in communications power (though probably not in calling reinforcements) and they plain and simple don't like it.

If using a phone is scientifically proven to distract drivers does it make a difference who they are talking to and the nature of the call?

[Ringo]

I drove a cab for a few years, and used two-way radio with a dispatcher. This would be mobile communication in a form much more similar to police communications than the sort of communications that people engage in on cellular phones.

Police communications are meant to be brief, informative and non-distracting; they are not often chatty. Personal cell phone communications are quite often chatty, long, and may include transmissions of information that carry great personal weight for the individual who is supposed to be driving a car. Police communications are not carried on with a girlfriend who is in the bathtub and is trying to decide whether or not to go back to school.

So, I think we're talking about different types of communication here. I'll hardly argue that no police officer has ever had his attention to his driving diverted by what he's hearing on the radio. I'll bet, if you're out in the real world, that you wouldn't argue that cell phone users never appear, by their driving, to be distracted.