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Tell the bloke who was convicted for driving without due care and attention!!

Phil

Quote: Originally posted by cwdc56768 on 21/6/2011

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Tell the bloke who was convicted for driving without due care and attention!!

Phil

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Don't know how many ways we have to say this but there is no offence of driving in bare feet. However, if by driving in bare feet, (if the facts fit the case), you do not have adequate control over the car you can, potentially, be charged with driving without due care and attention. That is the offence.

Phil

Quote: Originally posted by cwdc56768 on 21/6/2011

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Don't know how many ways we have to say this but there is no offence of driving in bare feet. However, if by driving in bare feet, (if the facts fit the case), you do not have adequate control over the car you can, potentially, be charged with driving without due care and attention. That is the offence.

Phil

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Quote: Originally posted by cwdc56768 on 21/6/2011

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Don't know how many ways we have to say this but there is no offence of driving in bare feet. However, if by driving in bare feet, (if the facts fit the case), you do not have adequate control over the car you can, potentially, be charged with driving without due care and attention. That is the offence.

Phil

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Well explained, I wouldn't drive with bare feet for the risk of not being able to apply the brake in an emergency or hurting my feet!

Also I suspect if you get sweaty feet there is the potential for your feet to slip off the pedals - that’s why you dry off shoes on carpet before driving!

As said, I don't do it, but don't agree there is necesarily a problem with it.  There could also be problems with your shoes, socks or any other article of clothing worn on your feet that could cause lack of concentration.  Along with your cardigan, anorak etc.

People don't generally get pulled up for it as far as I know, but there again don't get pulled up for wearing dark sunglasses on a dark day, dirty windows, noisy kids, noisy wife (or husband for that matter), or any of the other seemingly small things, which in reality could cause an a big accident if you don't manage the situation properly.  And I am glad about this, becuase it would prove that we really do live an a nanny state if they did.

There may however be a case to answer if it were noted at the point of an accident that one of these things may have been the cause of the accident so from that perspective, if you cannot drive safely, whilst not wearing shoes, or indeed wearing sunglasses, or have kids in the car, then you shouldn't do it.  If however you can do one of the these things and drive safely, which may include cleaning your carpet, or managing the kids properly so that they are not constantly disrupting the driving, then you should be allowed to do it.

If it doesn't affect the safe driving of the vehicle then what is the problem?

Tony B

No problem...as you say. Development of the law is an area I used to follow in a former life as the job depended upon it and one example is the mobile phone. They used to argue that driving whilst using the phone was not a problem and then anecdotal evidence turned to hard facts that there was a link to using the phone and a lack of control over the car. They used to prosecute for driving without due care and attention and, eventually, they introduced the specific offence of using the phone whilst driving.

The cases of accidents related to driving with bare feet are few and far between and so Parliament does not see it as a problem that would warrant Parliamentary time to address. It is a fact, however, that there have been cases where the link has been made to a Courts' satisfaction to secure prosecutions. Driving along without having to stop suddenly is the easy part. It's generally the other driver who c***s up and you have to slam all on. If you can't control that sufficiently with bare feet, and, anecdotally there is a suggestion that you can't, then, potentially you end up in the dock for someone else's mad moment at the wheel.

Must say, I have a similar problem with cruise control. You get to an age when the feet start to feel a bit dead after driving for some time and you need to streatch. Particularly along a mothorway where the body remains in the same spot for hours. Rather than stop and loosen the shoes (or take them off), cruise control permits you to do that (and I've done it...naughty boy) but I don't like the hands off approach to driving that cruise control gives you, so I rarely use it. Prefer my own control.

Just grateful I'm past the "managing the kids properly" stage

Phil 

ps...when I said "I don't like the hands off approach to driving that cruise control gives you," I didn't mean literally

Phil