It could be said that, on the whole, hospitals are full of people who are not well, one way or another - agreed? Good. So this afternoon, as I was leaving MK Hospital, having been visiting a pal of mine who's got a very poorly heart, I was not best pleased to see a chap driving out of the visitor car park, drivers window down, his right elbow on the open window frame and chatting away on his mobile phone! "The dummy!" I thought, apart from it's illegal, one reason WHY it's illegal is that your concentration is on the conversation, not on the road, so an accident is more likely to be your fault - and someone might get hurt... maybe badly hurt... maybe hospitalised...
So this plonker is driving away from a hospital quite prepared to put some other poor b**g*r in that same hospital cos he wants to have a chat! See red? I went mental at him! Of course, I was walking, he was driving, but he heard me alright! He had to stop at the road junction 50 yards distant, so I yelled at him again, and he put his phone down... but I'm pretty darn sure that as soon as he'd turned at the junction he'd picked it up again - the poxy little tow-rag! Ooo! I hate drivers who pick up and use their mobile phones on the move!
They do say that hands-free mobile phone technology is just as dangerous, though I'm not convinced of that one, any more than if I had a car full of companions all chatting and laughing... should I wear ear-plugs then to stop me hearing, or taking part, in their conversations and revelry? 'Course not! It's the mobile-in-the-hand-to-the-ear that is the accident maker. The phone conversation is going right into the ear, and one hand is nowhere near the steering wheel. If anything happens, there are probably several seconds gone by (by which time there's been a big thump!) while the plonker on the phone sees what's happening, reacts, tries to put the phone down and gain control of the motor before... oops... too late... crash, bang, wallop... someone's hurt, and it's probably NOT the plonker on the phone!
Why can't cars / lorries (etc) be fitted with a gadget which automatically shuts-down any mobile phone within its confines as soon as the ignition is turned on? And don't tell me that a passenger may need to make a call, that's poppycock! We've had motors for a century but we've only had mobile phones for about 20 years, so what did everyone do before mobiles? Stop at a phone box. Same principle... NEED (?) to make a call on the move? Then stop somewhere and then use your phone. "Simples!" as a certain Meerkat might say!
So this plonker is driving away from a hospital quite prepared to put some other poor b**g*r in that same hospital cos he wants to have a chat! See red? I went mental at him! Of course, I was walking, he was driving, but he heard me alright! He had to stop at the road junction 50 yards distant, so I yelled at him again, and he put his phone down... but I'm pretty darn sure that as soon as he'd turned at the junction he'd picked it up again - the poxy little tow-rag! Ooo! I hate drivers who pick up and use their mobile phones on the move!
They do say that hands-free mobile phone technology is just as dangerous, though I'm not convinced of that one, any more than if I had a car full of companions all chatting and laughing... should I wear ear-plugs then to stop me hearing, or taking part, in their conversations and revelry? 'Course not! It's the mobile-in-the-hand-to-the-ear that is the accident maker. The phone conversation is going right into the ear, and one hand is nowhere near the steering wheel. If anything happens, there are probably several seconds gone by (by which time there's been a big thump!) while the plonker on the phone sees what's happening, reacts, tries to put the phone down and gain control of the motor before... oops... too late... crash, bang, wallop... someone's hurt, and it's probably NOT the plonker on the phone!
Why can't cars / lorries (etc) be fitted with a gadget which automatically shuts-down any mobile phone within its confines as soon as the ignition is turned on? And don't tell me that a passenger may need to make a call, that's poppycock! We've had motors for a century but we've only had mobile phones for about 20 years, so what did everyone do before mobiles? Stop at a phone box. Same principle... NEED (?) to make a call on the move? Then stop somewhere and then use your phone. "Simples!" as a certain Meerkat might say!
