woman eating cereal while driving

[Flinders]

Seatbelts are a good example of the converse: a counterproductive law that got introduced against all the evidence just because it was popular.

I'm not sure I 'get' that- what was counterproductive about it?

The seat belt law did not affect the death rate in cars, but the number of cyclists and pedestrians killed and injured increased.

http://www.john-adams.co.uk/category/seat-belts/

The evidence from states which already had a seat belt law was concealed. See Adams's website also.

I see what you mean. I didn't realise you were including other road users as well as those in cars. I take your point: large 4x4s are very dangerous for pedestrians, for two reasons, one is they are badly designed for pedestrian safety to start with, and the other is that they make drivers feel so safe and separate from the plebs that it turns some of them into selfish, dangerous morons who ignore any laws they fell like ignoring.
The answer is in the first case to make people wear seatbelts but also enforce all the other road laws as well, and in the case of 4x4s, force better design standards, and also enforce all other laws.

[reohn2]

I see what you mean. I didn't realise you were including other road users as well as those in cars. I take your point: large 4x4s are very dangerous for pedestrians, for two reasons, one is they are badly designed for pedestrian safety to start with, and the other is that they make drivers feel so safe and separate from the plebs that it turns some of them into selfish, dangerous morons who ignore any laws they fell like ignoring.
The answer is in the first case to make people wear seatbelts but also enforce all the other road laws as well, and in the case of 4x4s, force better design standards, and also enforce all other laws.

Not just large 4x4's(and SUV's) but potentially anyone driving a motor vehicle on UK roads who realise they can get away,literally with murder.
When there's no one to enforce or uphold the law or penalties harsh enough to dissuade people from taking the chance of getting away with whatever laws they choose to ignore,the roads become a free for all.
I witness such behaviour on a regular basis and it's getting worse IME.
Policing and the judicial system in the UK has gone to the dogs and is practically non existent .

[Mike Sales]

I see what you mean. I didn't realise you were including other road users as well as those in cars. I take your point: large 4x4s are very dangerous for pedestrians, for two reasons, one is they are badly designed for pedestrian safety to start with, and the other is that they make drivers feel so safe and separate from the plebs that it turns some of them into selfish, dangerous morons who ignore any laws they fell like ignoring.
The answer is in the first case to make people wear seatbelts but also enforce all the other road laws as well, and in the case of 4x4s, force better design standards, and also enforce all other laws.

Enforcement of traffic law is an ideal very far from being realised, and I am not sure that it ever can be done. In any case, I don't think you can make people safer than they want to be.

[Postboxer]

You can, you ban them from driving, then if they still do, cut off their legs. Then they're safer as they are no longer driving.

[Psamathe]

Such habits seem to be spreading
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/woman-filmed-at-the-wheel-of-her-car-watching-celebrity-masterchef-10388207.html (watching celebrity something on TV and drinking tea whilst driving).

And somebody posted another earlier inattentive driver who went into the back of a van but I can't find it now.

Ian

[Postboxer]

Can't believe anyone would put something that big blocking their windscreen, if it was a windscreen defect that big, in the middle of the windscreen, it would be an MOT fail. It's one of my bugbears, people who put sat navs, or apparently in this case, TVs, right in the middle of their windscreen. Along with people sat so low as I find it incredible they can see where they're going.

[Flinders]

I see what you mean. I didn't realise you were including other road users as well as those in cars. I take your point: large 4x4s are very dangerous for pedestrians, for two reasons, one is they are badly designed for pedestrian safety to start with, and the other is that they make drivers feel so safe and separate from the plebs that it turns some of them into selfish, dangerous morons who ignore any laws they fell like ignoring.
The answer is in the first case to make people wear seatbelts but also enforce all the other road laws as well, and in the case of 4x4s, force better design standards, and also enforce all other laws.

Enforcement of traffic law is an ideal very far from being realised, and I am not sure that it ever can be done. In any case, I don't think you can make people safer than they want to be.

It could be done a lot more than it is now.
The thing about enforcement, is that if you have enough of it for long enough it changes habits permanently and, paradoxically, you then need to spend a lot less to keep enforcing it. It also saves a lot of money in terms of what accidents cost- which can run into hundreds of thousands if you count loss of earnings and insurance claims for death and disability.

[reohn2]

It could be done a lot more than it is now.
The thing about enforcement, is that if you have enough of it for long enough it changes habits permanently and, paradoxically, you then need to spend a lot less to keep enforcing it. It also saves a lot of money in terms of what accidents cost- which can run into hundreds of thousands if you count loss of earnings and insurance claims for death and disability.

Spot on +1
As it is,it's a free for all with criminals and law breaking becoming more bold due to the chances of being caught being practically nil.
It's also infectious,monkey see,monkey do

[jezer]

I'm a member of a Facebook group dealing with my local area, nothing to do with cycling. I posted about road crime, and the fact that motorists caused more deaths and serious injuries than anyone else. A few got the point, but most didn't.

[Lance Dopestrong]

To me it sounds like sour grapes because some folk can't afford a large 4x4 themselves.

[thirdcrank]

This case - and let's not forget somebody died - involves much more distraction than a bowl of cornflakes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-33594371

[Lance Dopestrong]

He'll have fun living out his sexual fantasies in Jail.

[gaz]

Nothing to do with cornflakes but some alarming figures here:
http://fleetworld.co.uk/news/2015/Jul/9 ... 0434020833

Despite this, the number of drivers given penalty points for using a smartphone at the wheel fell by more than 40% in 2014.

[axel_knutt]

"Driver eating breakfast"

And there was I thinking that was a search with only one hit. Silly me...........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAqrY4OR01U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0elsNDRqLtQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-KoF_DyHu4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGgAosNMOWU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izDVsLI2b5c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBwCi9zZFtM

[thirdcrank]

A point that nobody seems to have made already is that somebody who does this might be better off eating porridge.