Yes Toni, how often do we hear of a driver being fined for eating a hot pie, or drinking a hot coffee while driving. Or for that matter smoking, as it's not hard to drop a smoke in your lap.

While I agree that looking at your phone while driving, I don't agree that making a call while driving is distracting to any great degree.

Thankfully very few have seen the amount of trauma a road workers who have along history on the pre upgrade Pacific has, needless head on, multiple deaths, not near nice,a petrol head all my life, still, it became clear a very long time ago, I and every driver has no right to put any ones life at risk,we got along without mobiles once, we should see only blue tooth in cars, and finding an answer to zombie like pedestrians walking on the roads foot path and even in to open man holes must be considered over personal freedoms

There is a fundamental difference between use of a two way radio and a mobile phone.
Hands free two way radio is easily setup. I had it in my car.
The transmit/receive control only needs the thumb while holding the
microphone to speak. No need to look away from the road.
Being familiar with the radio means you can even change channels
just by feeling the buttons, just like you do on your BC radio.

No sending text messages which need constant checking to check for errors.
It is the intense contact to the mobile phone screen.
Of course blue tooth to a mounted phone is similar when answering a
call and that is not illegal. Making a call could be a problem but
voice dialing regular contacts would be OK I imagine.

//There is a fundamental difference between use of a two way radio and a mobile phone.
Hands free two way radio is easily setup. I had it in my car.
The transmit/receive control only needs the thumb while holding the
microphone to speak. No need to look away from the road.
Being familiar with the radio means you can even change channels
just by feeling the buttons, just like you do on your BC radio.//

Phones can be used hands free as well - no need even for the thumb, and certainly no need to take your eyes off the road. I reckon they're probably a bit safer than two-way radios.

But hardly anybody has two-way radios, so there's no point banning them because you don't stand to make much revenue out of doing so. Whereas if you ban phones... well, everybody has one of those. So the state revenue office can make a killing out of phone ban.

I got to say as a bus passenger, I only have to look out the window at any red light and I'll see a driver on mobile. The one I see using a phone while driving, out of all proportion to their numbers on the road, are "tradies". I also know as a pedestrian when someone is using a mobile at a red light, the light turns green and the car sits there with the driver staring down at their phone, texting away.

How rude of some people, walk up to a counter with a phone at their ear, yak yak yak, slap down a bill to be paid, say at the post office, not utter a word to the person behind the counter. Just expecting to be served.

The other thing I get a laugh out of is on a bus or train. The bloke sitting next to me, say about 30 years old, in a business suit, going the clappers with his fingers on the phone, what's he doing, I glance across....playing some stupid game a 7 year old would play. Then there is the silly girl down the back of the bus or on the train, who thinks everyone on board is interested to hear her side of the CONVERSATION.

Using Mobile Phones whilst driving. Grrrrr… My pet hate.

While I was working in the Queensland Rail I had to attend a number of Derailments. I was in the Break down Gang.

The first Accident I attended caused by a Mobile Phone was at the Brandon Rail Xing. A guy ran into a cattle train. Killed, of course. But so were a number of Cattle & many more injured & had to be put down. The second one was just south of Ingham where a bloke & his family tried to beat a train to a Xing. I had to help cut the Toyota of the front of the Diesel after they extracted the bodies including children. The next was a semi driver who went through a Xing while the lights were flashing. Also a Cattle train. The Diesel hit the Semi just behind the Drivers Compartment where the fuel tanks are located. The Semi burst into flames & some visiting US Marines pulled the driver out of the wreck. He died later. I found his Phone some distance from the wreck & gave it to the Coroner. He was on the phone to a mate of mine at the time.

What happened to the Diesel. According to witnesses it went end for end in the air & landed about 100 metres from the crash site. We are talking about 90 tons here. The Cattle wagons were bent into a Z & most of the cattle were killed. Those that weren't were maimed with legs broken & hanging off the rest were running around traumatized & dangerous.

Cont