Hasbeen,

Put a device like that in cars and people will turn the engine off when going down hill so that they can have a chat on the phone.

I have a mobile phone in case of a breakdown but it is always switched off; I used to be a wireless op!

Thanks Is Mise, that gave me a laugh, perhaps because it is so true. It could be dangerous. A friend who turned off his ignition, as he rolled into one of those rest areas on the Hume highway, pulled the keys out as he did so. This eliminated the power on his brakes, & locked his steering. He only knocked a few bricks out of the amenities block, when he hit it, but really destroyed his left headlight.

I have a mobile like that Is Mise. My kids must think I am no longer competent, as they kept nagging me to get a mobile for emergencies, & finally gave up nagging, & gave me one of their old ones.

What a useless bit of kit. It is small enough to get lost in my shirt pocket, so the numbers are so small I can only push them with a fingernail, you can't read the thing in bright sunlight, & the sound is so poor that with my tinnitus I can barely understand a word on it.

It has over a hundred unread messages on it, but as I would have to dig out my reading glasses to figure out how to access or delete them, they just keep increasing.

After complaining I never answer her calls on it, my eldest discovered the ring thing was on mute & fixed it. That would explain why I have never had any calls on it, & probably all those messages. When I get time, & find those reading glasses, I think I'll put it back on mute. I liked it that way.

Rechtub mate in this case you are giveing me more evidence to prove my case.
Bloke City or country drivers and every one in fact of an age much younger than us live by phone.
And you said it all, we ring or receive normal calls, they send tex messages like a machine gun out of control.
In my view so boring is life for them they must send the details of every thing they do, by all the extras we ignore in phones.
Police have seen cars wobbling all over the road at speed and found the driver checking his/her social pages for messages.
NO hands on use of a phone is legal and it should always remain that way.
Last night on TV a woman caught and fined seemed to want police to take her phone! maybe she is evidence some are addicted to using it while driving.
I have been a passenger in a car driven through a red light while the driver texed twice!

I got this one very wrong not that post numbers outweigh comment value but thought we would mostly think saving life on the road is worth the fines.
Never thought it could happen to me, something people say after it is too late.
Bit of a petrol head still I put extra effort in to being aware when driving.

In the early 2000's I worked as a rep driving around the suburbs and city of Melbourne. yep mobile phone and all the trick bits that go along with selling your product and your soul, variously!

Think was my colleagues and I all hand a cradle installed on the transmission hump in front of the auto trans and the console! Speaker mounted under the glovebox/dash and the microphone about head height on the right hand side of the windscreen/door pillar.

Smartphones have docking stations which will wake you up, help you to sleep, whatever. Should be mandatory that a cradle kit is fitted to any car where the driver wants to use their phone.

Oh and btw yes if calls got a bit carried away, we pulled over and took notes!

Very curios yes quite true, but the costs of installing those full cradles has sky rocketed.
But blue tooth is being used in new cars and is no threat it can be used by almost any one safely.
In 2000I was driving Government car/truck and it was hands free but still mostly pulled over to use it.
Phones have evolved and as you will know actually using it to ring is not the major use for some.
I remain convinced in some hands it kills.