The British government are becoming harsher on UK drivers, but for all the right reasons. The government are considering more extreme forms of punishments for those who text and drive at the same time because they’re putting themselves and others at a high risk on the roads.
Northgate Vehicle hire, who are also available for business hire, look further into some of the consequences for those caught texting on the road in this article.
A £200 fine has been proposed by the Transport Secretary and will be given to anyone who is caught with their phone in their hand while at the wheel. It will be an instant fine that could rise to £1,000 with an additional six penalty points on their driving license.
The current fine for driving with a mobile device in your hand is £100 and three points on the driver’s license. You can see from the comparison above that Gary Grayling, who is the current Transport Secretary, wants to double each part of the punishment in hopes that it will put people off completely.
We understand that people are continuing to drive and have their hands off the wheel, but we have found out how long a driver’s eye will be off the road. According to an article by the International Business Times (which you can read in full here), 4.6 seconds of your attention is not on the roads when you look to your phone – almost 5 whole seconds. We decided to round this up to 5 seconds for the purpose of this research.
You might think that 5 seconds is a short amount of time, and when you’re not driving – it is. But when you’re behind the wheel, 5 seconds could be the difference between life and death. If your eyes are not on the road, you might crash your vehicle — putting yourself and others in danger. We have gathered some statistics below that will make you think twice about looking away from the wheel when driving.
The list below, for example, is just a small selection of the type of cars that reach the speed of 60 MPH from a standstill position in under 5 seconds:
• Ariel Atom 350 R (The car can go from 0-60mph in 2.5 seconds)
• Bugatti Veyron Super Sport (2.5 seconds)
• Nissan GT-R Nismo (2.7 seconds)
• Tesla Model S P85D (2.8 seconds)
• Porsche 911 Turbo S (2.9 seconds)
• Lamborghini Aventador (2.9 seconds)
• Ferrari F12tdf (2.9 seconds)
• McLaren 650S (3.0 seconds)
• Noble M600 (3.0 seconds)
But what else could you possibly do in 5 seconds? If you’d like your eyes opening wider, consider the following:
• If you’re driving at 20mph for five seconds, you will cover a distance of 44.70 metres.
• If you’re driving at 30mph for five seconds, you will cover a distance of 67.06 metres.
• If you’re driving at 40mph for five seconds, you will cover a distance of 89.41 metres.
• If you’re driving at 50mph for five seconds, you will cover a distance of 111.76 metres.
• If you’re driving at 60mph for five seconds, you will cover a distance of 134.11 metres.
• If you’re driving at 70mph for five seconds, you will cover a distance of 156.46 metres.
Next, we decided to delve into the stopping time from when a driver spots a hazard. Spot it then stop it. These figures released from the Department for Transport and are quite astonishing:
• From 20mph, the typical stopping distance is 12 metres.
• From 30mph, the typical stopping distance is 23 metres.
• From 40mph, the typical stopping distance is 36 metres.
• From 50mph, the typical stopping distance is 53 metres.
• From 60mph, the typical stopping distance is 73 metres.
• From 70mph, the typical stopping distance is 96 metres.
Here is a fact that might surprise you: A car will travel a further distance at 50 MPH in 5 seconds than it would take the typical car to stop when it’s travelling at 70 MPH. Now think about texting behind the wheel and how long that will take you.
What you can do in your car without taking your eyes off the road!
Listen to music while you drive with your attention fully on the road. Everyone always ends up struggling for song choice, so we’ve listed some iconic songs that you will recognise in the first 5 seconds of the chorus:
• Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone: ‘How does it feel, how does it…’
• Rolling Stones – Satisfaction: ‘I can’t get no satisfaction…’
• John Lennon – Imagine: ‘Imagine there’s no heaven, It’s…’
• Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On: ‘Oh, what’s going on, what’s going on, Yeah…’
• Aretha Franklin – Respect: ‘R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Find out what it means to me, R-E-S-P-E-C-T…’
• Beach Boys – Good Vibrations: ‘I’m pickin’ up good vibrations, She’s giving me excitations…’
Now you just might realise that a lot of things can be done in 5 seconds, and will hopefully have second thoughts on picking up your phone whilst driving.