Driving Laws

Over the last few years many new driving laws have come into force to help reduce the number of accidents on our UK roads, one of the more recent being  the CU80 offence  (Using a Mobile Phone) which is aimed at stopping  UK drivers from using their mobile phones whilst driving.

Mobile phones are a major distraction from driving, and being distracted can lead you to not concentrating on the road and could cause a major accident which could result in fatalities.

As with all drivers HGV driver have to maintain full concentration at all times due to the size of the vehicle they are driving, so using a mobile phone without a “handsfree adaptor”  should never happen.

Now hopefully all HGV drivers have taken this into account as being caught using a mobile phone without a handsfree device whilst driving  may gain you 3 points and a £60 fine, or worse.

Even though some vehicles come with pre docking stations as standard, many police forces around the UK are considering enforcing the existing law that ‘a driver must not be distracted’ when driving- and this could be extended to include iPods.

Many HGV drivers are actually listening to their iPods via earphones and this cuts out all road noise, but what these drivers are not taking into account that maybe at a junction you could pull out at slow speed due to the size of the vehicle not aware that an ambulance could becoming at high speed and with you not be able to hear this, you could cause an accident.

The police have been looking into this and have established that if you are caught listen to your IPod you could face prosecution.

Currently, the police can warn drivers – even if they are eating or drinking whilst driving – if they believe the action is causing the driver to become distracted.

Being a HGV driver the police are aware that this can be a tiring job due to long hours, and that many drivers want some entertainment whilst driving the long motorways – but this is not a responsible method – the police spokesperson has recently stated  ‘ Your HGV vehicle was fitted with a standard entertainment equipment, we would advise to you use that only’.

Isis Insurance believe that being safe on the UK roads can cause less accidents and in the long run this will result to cheaper insurer premiums.

If you require a quote for your HGV insurance please give us a call at Isis Insurance so we can offer  you  competitive premiums  – And remember be SAFE.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 2:22 pm and is filed under HGV (Haulage/Truck). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.