Hands Off But Still Take Care

A generation or two ago the idea of chatting on a phone whilst driving was not just a dream of a distant piece of science fiction.

If they had existed they would have been impossible to use. That’s because back then, cars were extremely noisy and without any power steering always took two hands on the steering wheel just to keep on the road.

Mind you, there were far fewer vehicles on the roads and therefore less to distract the driver. Today cars have come a very long way in design and technical advancement. With heating and air-con as the norm and comfortable seats and surroundings it’s a relaxing environment for driver and passengers.

Music systems are at worst just average and at best are often better than that multi-thousand pound one back in the living room.

Bluetooth and hand free controls means it should never be necessary to take even one hand off the wheel when driving. Every safety survey carried out over recent years reveals how important this is.

The latest handfree car kits installation should be fitted in all vehicles today.

Most worrying and known cause of many accidents, is the mobile phone. It’s not just that one hand is needed to hold the phone, but often the call becomes the centre of attention. It may be some work related problem or a distressed call from a friend or relative.

And so it clearly makes sense that there are now high penalties for people using their phone or other mobile device whilst driving.

And yet many want to take this a step further and ban even the use of hands free phones. It’s become such an issue that car manufacturers are being asked by various transport as well as health and safety bodies for a method to cut all phone signals when a car is being driven.

But meanwhile, if you don’t want 6 points and a £200 fine for holding your phone whilst driving, get a hands free system fitted now.

Another Night Call

Fortunately car alarms are not as sensitive as they were many years ago. Living in the city meant being woken almost nightly with some nearby parked car’s alarm going off.

Just the rush of a passing car or even a strong wind could start them. The trouble is that they became almost meaningless. Nobody bothered to take much notice as there were too many false alarms.

They’re a lot better these days although there are other less anti-social ways to protect your car.
Immobilising the vehicle is one way and there are several different ways to do this. A key fob that alerts the owner without the potential thief knowing is another.

And perhaps all car owners should hide some sort of tracking device so that if the car is stolen the police will be able to track its progress.

Most car alarm installation and tracking devices are an after-market fit as original manufacturers don’t fit them apart from some very expensive and known brand targets. Many of these are stolen to order and some, just for their low mileage engine.

These end up in containers shipped to the other side of the world.

There was a story around many years ago of a smart thief that knocked late at night at the door of a stranger. You can tell how old this story is because he didn’t have a mobile phone.

He asked the owner of the house whether he could make a quick phone call to one of the motoring rescue operations he was a member of.

In that short time that he talked to the householder he learnt they loved the theatre. Well, they’d been targeted from the start. There was no broken down car. When front row tickets for the latest show in London arrived by means of a thank you they drove to a West End multi-story car park.

Whilst the show was on the engine was lifted from their brand new luxury car and best of all, an old one was neatly fitted back.

So no matter how hard we try to protect our vehicle there will always be someone clever enough to steal it.