Using A Mobile Phone Whilst Driving

[mattfox]

First time post in a long time!

I've just been stopped for what the office said was using a mobile or handheld data device. He said that he saw my thumb swipe across the screen.

My phone did beep and I did move the phone from where I keep it in the handle in the drivers door to the passenger seat but I didn't unlock the screen. The iPhone notifications disappear when the screen is swiped and at the time I was stopped, all the notifications were still there including the ones 20 minutes before I got stopped, proving I didn't use the device (I took screen shots of these).

I guess my questions is is if touching the mobile whilst driving enough to commit the offence, and if not would the screenshots be enough to prove otherwise? I did glance at the phone whilst moving it but for no longer than I would glance at the radio to check the time, or glance at the gearstick to see which gear I was currently in...

[BRIGHT SPARK]

Handling a mobile phone whilst driving is an offence.

[daftgrandad]

I agree with BRIGHT SPARK.
I also wish that the sentence for anybody caught using a mobile phone
whilst driving,was increased to £500 fine and automatic 6 months ban.

[Baldric]

^^^^
He's not so daft, is he?

[Zacs-Master]

You can also be charged with being distracted whilst driving when the police consider that the driver is distracted when they pay attention to a second activity while driving, especially if the second activity is time consuming or complex.

[RATTER15]

The problem is that the Police dont know and cant tell if you were doing other things with your mobile, so it is easier and safer to ban you handling them whilst driving, this solves the problem of long legal and expensive battles in court etc. Its simple, when driving, leave your mobile phone alone, use hands free if you need to!

[BRIGHT SPARK]

I proved that the device was not in use and the court accepted the proof...however I could not prove that I was not holding the cell phone...it cost me £1100 , 2 court visits,legal representation and a load of stress.Bite your lip pay up and move on.

[TWR]

£500 fine and automatic 6 months ban. I totally agree with you on that Daft G.
what the hell did people do before Mobiles?

[FredPuli43]

No, holding,handling, the phone is not an offence. You have to be using it for communication. That's why Jimmy Carr was acquitted of using a mobile phone; he was using it to record notes for his act, not as a communication device.

[BRIGHT SPARK]

FP is right......but only if you have £25k for legal backup!

[ToraToraTora]

sorry mate he above is correct, don't even pick up up.

[ToraToraTora]

sorry fred, on that basis it's ok to play chess on it! Holding the phone is interaction with it even if you just look. I need more on the Carr case but I suspect he was recording hands free.

[FredPuli43]

No, Tora, the definition in the relevant law is specific. The item is defined in terms of it being a device for communication, and therefore communication is the mischief at which the law is directed. If the defendant was holding a tape recorder, or a camera, and using that, there would not be a specific offence; no law provides that using a hand- held recorder or a camera when driving is an offence. It follows that if a camera has a phone, or vice versa, or a phone has a 'Dictaphone', or vice versa, and those functions are being used instead of the phone, the communication function, the offence is not established. That view is reinforced by the law being written to meet the possibility of someone emailing or texting by some hand -held device, on the assumption that such a device is not a phone or is a phone not being used for vocal communication. If Parliament wanted to ban the use of all phones, whatever gadget or extra built in, was being used ,it could have said so.

The answer would be to reframe the law, or redefine it: a search does not suggest that that has been done. Every source is the same.

You could be convicted of another offence, such as failing to have proper control of the vehicle, but not this specific one.

[joko]

why pick it up at all? why move it?

why move it out of its safe holder just as it beeped?

obviously you were going to use it, but you didnt get chance before being stopped.

the cop knew this.

[SpikeyBush]

Doesn't have to involve a phone. I was once behind an old Fiesta driven by a lady who must have been over 80. She was so engrossed in the conversation with her passenger that she completely missed the STOP sign and went straight over the main N3 at Carnaross. In her own little world. Going slowly but that would not have prevented a collision.

So instead of saying speed is the #1 evil, let's try and tackle bad driving instead of letting everyone carry on driving like eejits, only slower.