Re: Eating and drinking whilst driving doubles accident risk.


"Rob" <rsvptorob-usenetREMOVE@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:M8adnfwJMcU3zXbZnZ2dnUVZ8qGdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxx
Uno-Hoo! wrote:
|| "Rob" <rsvptorob-usenetREMOVE@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
|| news:V_OdnRfdTKvbqHbZRVnyqA@xxxxxxxxx
||| Uno-Hoo! wrote:
|||||
||||| OK! I wouldn't want to give the impression that I agree with the
||||| officer's action in booking the woman (although I suspect the
||||| booking was probably as a result of her giving him a hard time
||||| when he tried to 'advise' her re eating an apple whilst driving).
||||| A few friendly words would have been more appropriate.
|||
||| You just can't admit that the officer was being an arse can you, it
||| must have been *her* attitude that wrong! If you recall he thought
||| she was holding a mobile - he was obviuosly pissed off when he
||| discovered she wasn't, so had to do her for something.
||
|| I speak from experience. I can think of any number of incidents
|| where I went to speak to a motorist with the intention of imparting
|| a few words of wisdom - but ended up issuing a ticket simply because
|| they were too obnoxious to deal with in a friendly manner.

I don't doubt it.

|| Yes, I know that people will disagree with that - but police
|| officers have the discretion to issue verbal cautions *if* they
|| consider the recipient is likely to respond positively to such an
|| approach. Many offending motorist are their own worst enemies when
|| being dealt with by police officers.

I don't doubt that either, but there is still nothing to suggest she did
anything to warrant the petty-minded booking that she got.

Nothing to suggest that she didn't either!

||||| Having said that, I do believe that trying to steer around corners
||||| whilst holding an apple in one hand, is not the most sensible of
||||| actions.
|||
||| Maybe not but it had no effect whatsoever on her driving.
||
|| You could say that about many instances of drink driving. It's not
|| what *did* happen - but what *could* have happened if she had been
|| required to respond suddenly to an emergency.

I don't think you can compare the two. Being under the influence of
alcohol is not something you can snap out of in an instant, whereas
holding an apple can be remedied in a millisecond.

||||| Although the woman may have been stationary when she was spoken to
||||| (couldn't have been otherwise really!), she had, I understand,
||||| driven a route with a number of corners whilst eating the apple!
|||
||| Then you understand wrong. She hadn't eaten the apple, she was
||| merely holding it.
||
|| And that makes a difference?

It does to the image you tried to portray of someone driving for a long
period whilst not concentrating.

Not so much not concentrating as trying to steer with a round object
clutched in one hand. She probably had the apple in her right hand which
means that every time she changed gear she was holding the steering wheel
and the apple in the same hand. Do you think that you can adequately grip a
steering wheel and hold an apple with the same hand?

The fact is Kev, each and every one of us whilst driving does something,
even if only momentarily, that could be construed as driving whilst not
being in full control, if a police officer wished it to be so.

I accept that - although in most cases the action is momentary (such as
reaching for a sweet) rather than driving for a distance and turning corners
whilst simultaneously holding a round object in one hand!

The problem is not that we don't need the law - clearly we do, given some
of the other more ridiculous and dangerous things people do whilst they're
supposed to be concentrating on driving - but in the inappropriate
application of the law, which IMO was the case here.

I do agree with you there - and I'm certain that the vast majority of police
officers would also. That's why I tend to suspect that there is more to what
occurred than meets the eye.

Uno-Hoo!


.

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