On 24/12/2014 12:57, tony sayer wrote:
A course is an alternative to
prosecution, as is a bollocking from a real-live plod.

They can be good fun those real-life plods. I got stopped for using my
mobile phone whilst driving. The officer asked me why I had been
stopped and I said it was because I was using my phone. For answering
correctly I was told that I would not get a ticket (and the usual
lecture where I nodded at the appropiate times) and I could spent the
£60 saved on the fixed penaly on a hands free kit for my phone . He
also told me that he had already issued 30 tickets that day to people
who denied using a phone whilst driving and that all of them had the
same opportunity as me to admit what they had done.

So has it persuaded you not to use your phone whilst driving in future?

I don't think the hands free kit makes it that much better, its the part
of your brain thats involved with the phone call thats pulling the
"processing power" from the actual driving of the car.

However..

I spend a lot of my driving time alone by myself but when ever I have a
passenger or two the conversation your are obliged to have takes a lot
of the same attention off the driving process too.....


You have to learn not to allow the others to distract you. If they are
you have to tell them to stop it or walk. Its the same with mobiles, you
just stop taking any notice of the people if the road conditions need
your attention.