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news
Woman reading book at wheel.pngMust've been a page-turner... Woman caught on camera reading a BOOK at the wheel
Distracted drivers - we thought we’d seen the gamut.
The driver who was eating a sandwich at the time hit and killed a cyclist, and was sentenced to 240 hours community service for causing death by careless driving.
The Maserati driver who was eating a bowl of cereal at the wheel.
And what about the woman who hit and killed a cyclist when she took her eyes off the road to adjust her sat nav and was convicted of death by dangerous driving?
A cyclist in Manchester has topped all of these though, by capturing on helmetcam a woman driving along while reading a book.
The YouTube user, dubbed CycleSmarter, noticed the woman driving suspiciously slower than the rest of the traffic and peeped inside the car window to notice to his horror the driver reading.
At the lights, he confronted the driver, then threw his bike in front of her car to stop her moving before marching down the road to fetch a police officer.
The driver explains to the officer that she feels the cyclist is ‘picking on her’ and says that he was aggressive, when she had her six year old child in the car.
The video’s creator added: “He has spoken with the driver, and reiterated my concerns as a person that rides a bicycle. In this case a Section 59 PRA2002 warning will not be issued.”
Section 59 PRA2002 covers “Vehicles used in manner causing alarm, distress or annoyance” - the full police guidelines are here.
Latest Comments
- Boopop 4 sec ago
I find it deeply jarring and disappointing that Sir David agrees with these people not wanting a cycle lane. Whenever I watch one of his excellent...
- chrisonabike 9 min 10 sec ago
May need insurance, tax and a licence. No problem with the lights though.
- Simon E 25 min 11 sec ago
Yes, they look just like the Lezyne Zecto model. My club bought a couple of sets from the LBS for our midweek TTs so if someone turns up without...
- Hirsute 2 hours 56 min ago
If you can't see a %^$&ing large tractor what ^%$£"!*ing hope is there that you will see a cyclist ?...
- chrisonabike 3 hours 14 min ago
Well if you *can* interview the original riders at all surely they worked, at least?...
- David9694 3 hours 43 min ago
Live: Car plunges over wall and lands on beach rocks...
- biking59boomer 3 hours 49 min ago
Looks like yet another bike share service that's going to fold because of selfish idiots.
- quiff 7 hours 54 min ago
Fair point - I was restricting myself to pedal bikes. As I've never spent that kind of money on anything though (mortgage doesn't count), it's kind...
- brooksby 8 hours 56 min ago
And finally: I wonder how many of the "more than 3,000" signatures on that petition are actually locals, who live or work there (and are not just...
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30 comments
Got to agree with crazy legs. The police need to reinvestigate this. I suggest a letter to the IPCC
Having been totally wiped out by a taxi only 30 seconds away for this exact point I'm glad someone else is keeping an eye on Drivers.
As in my case, and here, the police chose the best option for the Driver and not common sense.
Sorry but I see NO REASON at all for the police not to pursue prosecution. Do we know the end result of this?
The footage is quite credible and perfectly clear. If I filmed a bank robbery escape would the police show similar disinterest in the footage?
The police trough the book at her
+1 for everything that 'hampstead bandit' says above.
If the police bothered to enforce this, we could clear the national debt inside of a year. But politically, its not an option. The war on the poor oppressed hard working motorist, stealth taxes and so on that the populist press would trot out.
And we end up further down the line where everyone thinks that they have an absolute right to drive...
It's the threat of being caught which is the deterrent (or not) - the actual penalty almost doesn't matter.
Perhaps she was reading the highway code?
Just one more chapter to the bit about not reading a blooming book while driving
She said she was only reading with the handbrake on...that would explain why she was going so slow
This week I went out for a quick road ride before work and the final descent is off Hampstead into Swiss cottage, London.
Around 8.30am so lots of traffic and a long queue of cars going into Swiss cottage. Cars either moving forward 5mph or stationary. I am carefully overtaking the queue on the outside, and moving slowly I am keeping an eye on the drivers to make sure I can react if one decides to suddenly pull out or open a door.
Pretty much every driver I pass is using a handheld device either making a call or tapping on the screen, some on tablets (!) and one man holding a large book on his steering wheel whilst his car is moving forward.
I am talking several hundred cars on this one road. If the Police could be bothered to walk alongside on the pavement, perhaps filming for evidence, they could charge 100+ motorists and give these muppets a wake up call as its very obvious the motorists do this as normal behaviour, and probably every day during the week.
The worse thing about this, is that in her eyes she doesn't think she's done anything wrong. She accuses the cyclist of being aggressive towards her as an excuse to try and get out of it that plod falls for. She can't admit she's in the wrong because she doesn't think what she was doing was wrong, and that's the scary part!
She needs to be prosecuted and I feel the police also need to be retrained.
He need to ask her to park somewhere safe and then give her points and hand her a ticket. Even then I think that is a light punishment. Trying to use a 6 year old as some sort of defense is totally sickening and somehow she failed to be even remorseful about it.
Not only that she lies about him being aggressive. If I am judge I will send her to jail.
The woman claimed " he was aggressive, when she had her six year old child in the car"
How do these people think like that?
I have had similar shouted at me by car drivers who have endangered my child's life by forcing their car between the two of us while riding in close line astern fashion. Even when my child goes to the same school as their child who is being ferried less than a mile to school while we are cycling to school.
How can they hold such different views about words being such a threat to their child and 2 tonnes of uncontrolled metal threatening mine?
Cos this woman is fucking lying scumbag willing to do anything to save her skin.
Who is she? Some one must know. Name and shame! Can't be sued, well she could, but would fail as it would all be true as the footage clearly shows.
Because they only care about their child, whom they desperately wish to protect, without actualy understanding anything else. I had one last year, was forced off the road by a feckwit charging past. I shouted that he was a cult. Half a mile later they were stopped, out the car, two mobile sofas screaming at me that their child was traumatised by my language.
The fact that his father 's driving was crap enough that the brat was chucking his lunch by the roadside was apparently irrelevant.
And not just potentially abusing the road, look at the way way she was holding up the traffic crawling then stopping with huge gaps.
Driving like that should attract breath testing as well as a 'due care and attention' summons.
What an entitled cow. I hope she drives into the back of a lorry.
Got to hand it to the cyclist for not losing his cool, or acting aggressively in the least. She might have been shaken up but that was the oh shit i have been caught factor. All the "he was being aggressive" shit is just poor damsel in distress don't arrest me codswollp. I don't think I could keep my cool, but I suppose he knows he is on camera.
Love it when she slams the bok shut when she realised he had her rumbled.
iv been hit twice bye a car 1 on his phone i am rirly thinking ov seling my bikes and stoping cycling the cops dpp just dont care and very rarly do a thing it just isunt safe any more as much as i love cycling i love being alive more!!!!!!!!!
There are idiots, but to be fair there really aren't that many, although at times!!!
I categorise drivers in to two groups, those who are stupid, and those who are dangerous. Most drivers do dangerous things without thinking, misjudge speed, where a junction is, that sort of thing. Then there are a few who are dangerous and who deliberately endanger others.
As for the police, problem is your word and there word, and too many crimes and not enough officers. To their credit i contacted Glos Pol about the attached driver, who definitely fell into the second group, they have got back to me and sent the details on to an officer to follow up. I don't expect any charges, my word against theirs, but hopefully a word from a police officer will make the driver think twice in future, and it does mean his cards are marked if he does it again.
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the first time sum1 open ther dore no purpus to noke me off and laugt at me as i on the flor it on cctv police do nothink next time i get hit bye car at 30mph on a roundadout he just enter the round about without looking 7witnesis police send him on a corce as far as i was concern he suld get points so in my op[ineon police do nothink i live in north wales sry my speling sucks im dislexik
Not worth living without cycling!
I'm not afraid of getting killed, but rather the risk of what's euphimistically is called 'life-changing injuries', i.e. getting maimed...
My favourite incident from that stretch of road (about 150-200 yards further back) - a student cyclist came inches away from being wiped out by a left hook. In this case, his slow speed may well have stopped him from serious injury.
Stopped the driver for a quick chat, and he held up his mobile phone and in complete innocence, advised that he was "looking at the map for directions". Some people shouldn't be left alone with Tonka toys. Just gives them ideas.
It's carrange on the roads today, just because of morons like this lady.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/feb/14/m40-section-closed-30-veh...
It really wish the police/CPS and more importantly the public in general would stop turning a blind eye to road deaths and start getting pissed off about. Its far to easy to get a driving licence and nearly impossible to loss it.
Good to see that the book is not dead. Maybe penalties for driving around without due care and attention should be elevated to the one's that exist for drink driving. Given the amount of people you see today on the road Whilst holding mobile phones, a couple of points on the licence and a fine are clearly no longer a deterrent. The Risk of losing your license should stop this growing trend of people thinking it is ok to use phones whilst driving.
Except policing is so rare, that there isn't an actual deterrent of points and fines. So few get caught as to be irrelevant.
Effectively, England no longer has traffic police, as it's been an easy cut while road fatalities go down. As usual, short term savings have been chosen rather than trying to make things better.
Even pedestrians are fair game when it comes to allowing for errors in cars....
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/taylor-mcdonnell-hairdresser-using-...
Stupid, stupid woman.
Words cannot describe how stupid this woman is. Not only is this a serious traffic violation she should be investigated by the social services for knowingly/deliberately endangering her Childs life.
Yup totally agree with that.
Utterly indefensible behaviour from the driver and without a shred of understanding of the implications or remorse. To drive whilst distracted with your own child in the car makes this even more baffling.
When will the law start to take this behaviour seriously - a ban and automatic re-test for anyone caught using a mobile etc at the wheel is perhaps the only way some drivers will modify their behaviour.