Should car touchscreens have their use restricted?

Ben Hodgson, owner of Ben Hodgson cars, Dalston: The touchscreens are as much of a distraction as using a mobile phone – and they are illegal.

I travel up to Scotland a lot and you see a lot of signs saying ‘don’t use your satnav while you are driving.

I don’t think access to Facebook and Twitter is a good idea in the car.

It’s fair enough at home or on your mobile but the two don’t go together.

Ben Hodgson It is a distraction and any time it is accessed, there will be a point when the car is moving.

A lot of people do look at what the extras are when they are buying a car, things like satnav and such.

I have also heard a lot of people saying they are getting wi-fi fitted to their cars which is a bit too far for me.

I don’t think you need internet access in your car but more and more people are using the car as a business tool.

It is an office for some. I don’t like it, but we are all different and some people want to be connected 24/7.

I can see that technology moves forward and people want extras. I can see the benefit of satnavs and reversing cameras and heated seats but I don’t understand people wanting Twitter and Facebook access in their car.

George CairnsGeorge Cairns, Carlisle and West Cumbria Institute of Advanced Motorists: Clearly if you are driving a vehicle, anything that is going to take your concentration away from the road will introduce a risk and the more time your eyes are away from the road, the greater the risk.

At 60mph you are travelling at 88 feet per second, so even if you take our eyes off the road for a second, you have travelled that distance.

If you can’t see it, you can’t deal with it.

When we teach defensive driving, one of the biggest things we try and impress upon them is that any time your concentration is distracted, from the road, it introduces an element of risk.

If you are starting to introduce such in-car technology, it will encourage you to take your eyes off the road.

If you have in-car access to Facebook and Twitter, you are going into a completely different dimension of hazard awareness.

I know that some people use Facebook almost as they speak and I can’t imagine that those people if they were in a car would suddenly change their behaviour and not look at Facebook or Twitter.

It is definitely not the way to go.

Alice BaileyAlice Bailey, campaigns adviser for road safety charity Brake: Distraction is at least partly to blame in a huge number of crashes and must be kept to an absolute minimum.

As the government increases penalties for using a mobile at the wheel, recognising the danger, it seems crazy that manufacturers are encouraging the use of apps while driving via in-car screens.

We would like them to be banned. They’re such a huge distraction.

Sadly it seems the marketing people and not the safety people are in the driving seat with this technology.

Smartphone apps on the dashboard and driving under the influence of social media are potential death traps.

The police must now start checking if these screens have been used before crashes, like they do with mobile phones.

As a victim support charity we deal with people who have lost somebody due to other people’s reckless driving.

One man sticks in my mind. His wife was killed by a texting driver. He described her death as ‘pointless’.

It’s that preventability. With illness, as much as it’s tragic, often people know there’s nothing more that could have been done.

But when a driver was distracted, the person didn’t have to die.

Fred CosensFred Cosens, driving instructor from Carlisle: I am surprised to some extent that these things are allowed.

Manufacturers are assuming people will use them responsibly. But there is the temptation for people to use them when they’re on the move. It’s a definite distraction.

My car has a touch-screen satnav. It’s always tempted to check it when I’m driving. But I make sure I’m off the road, or ask a passenger to do it if there is one.

I spend a lot of time on the road, usually in the passenger seat. I see a lot of examples of drivers being distracted by technology.

A white van driver pulled out in front of us because he was on his phone. We had to brake to avoid him.

I think that has increased over the last two or three years. I know they’re going to double the points and the fines but it doesn’t seem to deter people.

Nearly all my pupils get in the car holding their phones. I tell them to turn their phones off or to put them on silent and to put them out of reach.

I think car manufacturers need to take a careful look at what they’re providing for drivers. Even simple things like retuning your radio can be a distraction.