Does anyone know what the law says about having things on your widscreen that block/limit vision. I only ask as today I followed someone who was using a smart phone as a sat nav, it was fixed by a suction cup holder that had a longish arm directly under the rear view mirror. I was thinking surly thats blocking some of the view? Black MY2013 SD4 GS Auto, Wood Company Armrest, Freel2 sticker.
Gone MY2010 Freelander 2 Manual TD4.e S, Alaska White.

Many people stick the thing directly in front of their vision, many at night use day colours illuminating the interior of the car, oblivious to the law and common sense.

This is what the law states...

To comply with the Road Traffic Act Construction and Use regulations,
the unit must not be located anywhere on the windscreen within the
sweep of the wipers or anywhere else that would cause an obstruction
to the clear vision of the driver;

This is something the Police really need to clamp down on, you could easily hide a car behind a sat nav placed in the middle of the windscreen, or worse still, a bike.

As I'm so tall, when I'm on the motorway I have regularly not seen artics coming down a slip road until the last minute as they hide behnd the rear view mirror...I make a concious effort to look for them now as it's surprising how just a couple of inches blocked on your screen can block several metres of road. And I'm not a bad driver.  Mine: 2012 Golf GTI Edition 35
Family's: 2009 Freelander 2 HSE TD4 Auto, Stornoway

Yorkshire - God's County

Whilst not disagreeing with the principle we can do without yet another excuse for the police to stop motorists! Plus, as is so often the case, there are many instances where one is technically not complying with the law whilst remaining perfectly safe. E.g. there are places on the screen, within the arc of the wipers, where all one obscures is one's own bonnet, and moving a satnav elsewhere could actually be less safe as one has to take one's eye further from the road in order to see it.

As usual it's common sense which is needed. And as usual common sense seems to be in short supply these days.

I would have to disagree, there should be more police STOPPING motorists! That would require them to actually be driving around looking for poor driving, phone usage, poorly maintained cars etc!

Too much road "policing" is done by cameras which can only work on things that have an obvious limit such as speed, traffic lights etc. While this is part of making roads safer there are not enough police stopping idiots with stupidly positioned Sat Nav's or Rep's doing paperwork while driving!

Using a phone while driving gets on my nerves too, I have had cars for the last 6-7 years that all came with built in bluetooth, hell its practically standard fit on all cars these days - yet time after time you see idiots in 6 month old, high end (german) cars which almost certainly have bluetooth as standard driving round with their phones clamped to their ears!

If the police were perfect maybe, but they're not and there are many many examples of the kinds of abuse which occur when officials are given these kinds of powers. SUS and stop-and-search to start with. And anything which involves subjectivity is particularly fraught with problems. He ways you were driving badly, you know you weren't - he's going to win because he's got the badge. No, this is one of those cases where the principle may be fine but the practise is not. For the innocent the police should be seen and not heard - we're moving far too much towards a society in which one has to prove one's innocence, and that's not good.

I would tend to accept all of your points, and in a nod to common sense, police stopping motorists and having a word with them should be the first port of call.

A quick "that was a bit fast/stupid/dangerous/late" would probably be enough to modify the behaviour of 80% of the population.

Yep, I agree with that.

Don't get me wrong, I am not anti-police and have no reason to be. There are many excellent officers out there doing a great job, and I have met a number of them. But there are also too many doing the job for the wrong reasons - the jobsworths and those who like throwing their weight around. IME some of the biggest critics of the police are those very excellent officers, who despair of what is happening to the job they used to love, and now can't wait to get out of.