accident on m62 while on phone, in news

OMG!! Stressed or not this woman should not have been on her phone!! When will people learn? I don't even use hands free in my car because I find it distracting - and quite different from speaking to a passenger beside me. If I have my two very young GC in my car I insist on silence when negotiating heavy traffic or busy roundabouts. They are very good about this and understand I mean what I say!! When traffic is calming I lift the ban - works perfectly!! This woman has killed a man .

I don't use the hands free option either as I know it would distract me. I wonder if we need a ban on having phones out in the car altogether a bit like you cannot carry alcohol in the main part pf your car in the US, it has to be in the boot

I wondered if she had been spared jail because she would need protection etc

My phone never comes out of my bag when I am driving. No excuse.

The lorry driver was killed in a pile up behind the woman’s car, caused by drivers braking due to her erratic driving. So drivers behind her following one another too closely and not as cut and dried as if she had been using her phone and crashed into the lorry. Usual lack of real detail from the DM.

I see this almost daily.
People will never learn.
Some years ago we lived in rural Lancashire, our village access was a single track road with stone walls and many bends.
A local girl of 18 had just got her first car, I encountered her daily, she drove whilst on the phone and at speed.
After a couple of weeks of dreading facing her head on, I met her, I reversed for her but thought “sod it” stopped my car in the middle of the road and got out. As I walked towards her she put her window down but continued to talk on her phone.
I snatched the phone from out of her hand, killed the call and gave her the dressing down of a lifetime!
I told her I was tempted to stamp on the phone, she was a bit cocky at first and said she was a good driver!
It wasn’t long before she was in tears and begging me not to tell her mother!
I often wondered if I had gone too far but her driving got slower and I never saw her with her phone in her hand again!

Good for you, Sago! You may very well have saved not only the girl's life, but also that/those of anyone in a car she might have crashed into whole on her phone and speeding. I see why you wondered if you had gone too far, but on the other hand, if she had had a terrible accident and you hadn't spoken up, you might always have felt that you could have done more.

We may need a special prison for former police and prison officers!

I hope she has a conscience that makes her stressed for the rest of her life.

Well done Sago !! 🏅
I came home from work one evening and the young girl behind me was constantly on her phone. Each time I moved off from traffic lights she took ages to move as she was too engrossed on her phone. I was just waiting for her to go into the back of me. Fortunately she didn’t but more luck than judgement
Another time a man behind me was having a blazing row on his phone, his face was like thunder. Certainly not concentrating on the road ahead. Made me so nervous

Grantanow

We may need a special prison for former police and prison officers!

read the OP
she was spared jail as the judge accepted she was stressed!!

She was stressed. Is that not a perfect reason not to answer a phone never mind check Facebook etc. She may not have caused a death but to me her behaviour certainly contributed to one. Sentence very light imo!

Driving on a motorway some years ago a car overtook me and I noticed the driver was taking his jumper off over his head!! I’m sure for several seconds he couldn’t see where he was going. I often wonder if he ever caused a major accident.

When I used to commute around the M25 to work it wasn't rare to see girls putting their mascara/lipstick on while driving in excess of 75 mph. Men doing up their tie. Men shaving. Many, many on phones. I long ago came to the conclusion that most drivers have the IQ of a jellyfish. Apologies to all jellyfish.

Germanshepherdsmum

The lorry driver was killed in a pile up behind the woman’s car, caused by drivers braking due to her erratic driving. So drivers behind her following one another too closely and not as cut and dried as if she had been using her phone and crashed into the lorry. Usual lack of real detail from the DM.

From the sound of that she was most definitely the cause of the start of all the crashes. She was on her bloody phone, driving erractically Typical soft judiciary once more. Hope she's been banned for life, no chance I suppose, another slap on, the wrist no matter what heartache her erratic driving has caused.
So the mail got it right.

No, not ‘typical soft judiciary’. Blame the people driving the vehicles in the pile up who were driving too close to one another. Do you not leave sufficient space between your vehicle and the one in front to be able to stop in an emergency? It matters not why they had to brake sharply - the fact is that they couldn’t, without endangering other drivers.