Driver is caught on video engrossed in her PAPERBACK while driving along busy dual carriageway 

Throw the book at her! Driver is caught on video engrossed in her PAPERBACK while driving along busy dual carriageway

  • John Eley, 60, recorded the ‘selfish’ driver while travelling on the A41 Monday  
  • Retired postman says she was staring at book for at least three minutes straight 
  • Distracted woman can be seen accelerating and braking and almost hitting van  


A ‘dangerous’ driver has been filmed reading a book while travelling on a packed dual carriageway. 

In footage recorded by John Eley, 60, the unidentified woman can be seen engrossed in a paperback which is spread open across her steering wheel.   

The distracted driver is filmed navigating the outside lane on the A41 as traffic lightens until she’s forced to break to avoid hitting the white van in front.

When Mr Eley shared the 25-second clip to Facebook he said the ‘selfish’ driver’s read ‘must be a good book’, while one user mockingly added that it ‘wasn’t the highway code’.

Mr Eley recorded the clip from the passenger seat of his friend Keith Anderson’s car on Monday. 

The semi-retired postman was shocked as the Skoda Fabia driver had her eyes glued to the novel for ‘at least three minutes’ straight, all the while accelerating and braking to keep pace with the traffic on the road, which has a 60mph speed limit.   

Mr Eley, from Woodbridge, Suffolk, said: ‘I don’t know what she was reading, but it must have been a good book. Hard to put down.

‘She certainly didn’t have her eyes on the road. When you read a book you’re normally engrossed, reading what’s going on.

‘I saw her and she just went on, and on, and on for at least three minutes. I thought I’ll have to get my phone out and take a video of it.

‘I’ve seen people on iPads, but never reading a book. We had to look twice to believe what we were seeing.

‘We were wondering if she was going to drive into the vehicle in front.

‘She didn’t even notice we were alongside her filming. I think if she’d have noticed she’d have reacted, but she wasn’t aware of what was going on.

‘It could have caused an accident. She could have ran into the white van in front of her. You see people on TV behaving in a dangerous and unsafe manner and this would be up there.

‘Not the highway code’: Woman filmed reading a book on the A41 is mocked by social media users while being branded ‘selfish’ and ‘dangerous’ 

The unidentified driver was engrossed in the novel for 'at least three minutes' while on the dual carriageway, according to semi-retired postman John Eley, 60, who recorded the clip on Monday

The unidentified driver was engrossed in the novel for ‘at least three minutes’ while on the dual carriageway, according to semi-retired postman John Eley, 60, who recorded the clip on Monday

‘I find it annoying that people would do that. She’s putting people at risk because of selfish behaviour.

‘There was a comment about the highway code, and I think she could do with reading that.’

‘Carrying out other tasks while driving’ can be classed as ‘driving without due care and attention’ and is punishable by three to nine penalty points on a drivers’ license.

Mr Eley didn’t think to report the incident to police, but the video to a motorists’ Facebook group later that night.

One member commented: ‘Next level multi-tasker.’

Another said: ‘WTF.’

While a third simply added: ‘Not the highway code, I assume.’