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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday November 26 2016, @06:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the when-does-investigating-become-snooping dept.

Police officers are worried they lack the right powers and resources to properly investigate whether a mobile phone was being used by a driver at the time of a crash, a new study has found.

Four out of five collision investigators surveyed for the research indicated mobile phone involvement in non-fatal accidents was under-reported, with half agreeing the role of phones was even overlooked in fatal crashes.

Three quarters of British officers participating in the online poll undertaken by the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) were unable to report the full proportion of road accidents in their force area linked with mobile phone use each year. A similar percentage of officers indicated that better mechanisms to quickly analyse and investigate phone usage would be most likely to improve data collection.

Original Study


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by BK on Saturday November 26 2016, @09:46PM

    by BK (4868) on Saturday November 26 2016, @09:46PM (#433410)

    Dr Pilkington [soylentnews.org], who is now working on a review examining the effectiveness of legislation governing mobile phone use and driving, said: "People are using their phones because they don't think they will be caught.

    No they use them because they want to talk to people, etc. It's not at all clear to normal people how using a phone is more distracting than trying to change the radio station on a one of those new touchscreen 'entertainment' systems. If there's two people in the car, there's always distractions - do people just ride together because they think they won't be caught? Can someone please take away this fraud's doctorate?

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  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday November 27 2016, @06:21PM

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Sunday November 27 2016, @06:21PM (#433695) Homepage Journal

    Can someone please take away this fraud's doctorate?

    There are numerous studies that say using a phone is more distracting than a passenger, for many reasons. Look around you some time, people talking on their phone while walking walk into utility poles, into traffic, etc. Your (and others here) insistance on ignoring the science tells me you're addicted to that damned phone. Leave it in your pocket. There are almost no circumstances where you can't let it ring and call them back.

    Stop being stupid. Your excuses are no better than a drunk driver's excuses, you're both menaces who should not be driving at all.

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    • (Score: 2) by BK on Monday November 28 2016, @03:11AM

      by BK (4868) on Monday November 28 2016, @03:11AM (#433892)

      There are numerous studies that say using a phone is more distracting than a passenger

      Most of the studies that I've seen that look credible focus on texting. Most of those use popular touch screen devices, inevitably iphones, which is why i commented about the touch interfaces now in so many cars. Your 'walk into poles' people are usually texting. I'm not aware of a well controlled study of talking on the phone vs having my (now) ex- wife in the car (or some other suitable distraction that requires attention as a matter of life and death).

       

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