Driving whilst using mobile phone

[Bluepete]

This thread is in response to an interesting conversation I had at work today.

The scene;

Me, looking all bright eyed and bushy tailed in my shiny BMW X5 (with 150 thousand miles on it ) at work, dishing out tickets, seizing cars etc etc...

The traffic was very busy on the approach to a majour roundabout in Salford and I was going away from the roundabout, so the slow moving traffic was to my right. The traffic was mixed commuters, buses, HGV's and the odd cyclist with motorbikes filtering past every now and then (some scootersits on the nearside in the cycle lane)
Bloke driving car in that queue was chatting on his phone whilst trickling along at around 10mph or so. So I stopped him and began the process of dishing out the ticket.
He wasn't denying using the phone, but made a reasonable argument that as he was going so slowly, he didn't feel he was puting anyone in any danger. His driving, as far as I could see was fine.

The discussion;

Do you all feel that he should or should not have been prosecuted for driving whilst using a hand-held mobile phone in these circumstances. If not, at what speed should someone expect a ticket?

Just to add a little someting to the mix, one of my colleagues recently came back from Magistrates court having attended for a trial for a driver given a mobile phone ticket whilst stationary at a red traffic light. He didn't accept the ticket and was summonsed. The CPS offered no evidence at trial (ie he was acquitted without trial)

Pete

[Mej]

i dont think a ticket at a red light is justified but whos to say they are gonna hang up when it goes green.

i think he has a resonable argument. i dont necessarly think its the speed (maybe 10 should be the limit) but more the situation.

i personally dont think eating an apple and driving should be illegal, and i dont understand why smoking and driving is legal!!

im gonna dwell on it and come back later

Yeah, the law states do not use a mobile while driving, no matter what the speed is, it is very clear and easy to understand. So what he wasn't moving fast, he might have decided to change lane real quick and have done so without proper attention because his distraction of the phone and hit a motorbike filtering or something. Law is simple in my eyes, wanna use a phone pull over and turn the engine off.

He's on the road, driving, and he's using a mobile. The speed he's going is irrelevant. What is so hard to understand?

Do people think they can pick and choose which laws to obey and which to disregard?

now if it was a single lane road out in the sticks and there was a big tail back and was crawling at 10mph then i would say what ever and cut him a break but because he was in abuilt up area with cars motorbikes and alike hazzards i think booking him was the perfect thing to do

[Bibio]

book their ass. there is no excuse as the price of bluetooth headsets are peanuts these days.

[Spiderman]

Tricky one Pete.

A huge part of me says "book em Dano" if they aint got the smarts to get rid of the phone when they see a cop. The more reasonable side of me says if he wasn't driving badly or in a situation that warrants a ticket then a polite word and a reminder to him of how dangerous is can be at slightly higher speeds is far better for your PR, his perception of cops in general and hopefully will encourage him to think about it next time rather than simply think "well i got a ticket last time, this time i'll make sure i get away with it" as opposed to "hmmm that nice cop man was right really. I'm doing 40 now so maybe not the best time to make a call"

As a biker i'd like to see all mobile phone use dealt with harshly to set the tone for others. As a reasonable person i think you out to have let him away with some friendly words.
Hence, i aint voting.

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by Spiderman

Tricky one Pete.

A huge part of me says "book em Dano" if they aint got the smarts to get rid of the phone when they see a cop. The more reasonable side of me says if he wasn't driving badly or in a situation that warrants a ticket then a polite word and a reminder to him of how dangerous is can be at slightly higher speeds is far better for your PR, his perception of cops in general and hopefully will encourage him to think about it next time rather than simply think "well i got a ticket last time, this time i'll make sure i get away with it" as opposed to "hmmm that nice cop man was right really. I'm doing 40 now so maybe not the best time to make a call"

As a biker i'd like to see all mobile phone use dealt with harshly to set the tone for others. As a reasonable person i think you out to have let him away with some friendly words.
Hence, i aint voting.

Thanks Spidey - you saved me a lot of typing so its a +1 from me

[Spiderman]

no wait... i said something that someone actually agrees with??? I need a lie down i think.

I was driving somewhere with my sister in law yesterday. She was on the phone but it was a handsfree kit all wired into her car so still legal (she had both hands on the wheel etc). I noticed though that her driving was very erratic. She would brake sharply and sit at junctions for ages while she chatted away to her mum. When she is not on the phone her driving is fine (well, fine for a woman!!) So, regardless of handsfree or not it still detracts from your driving. One could argue that this is the same if you are talking to a passenger but I think to a much lesser degree as body language and tone can be read much easier when a person is next to you.

I think a mobile at any speed has the potential to distract you enough to cause or contribute to an accident, so I would have booked him. Just because at that time he was doing 10mph, he could well have been doing 50mph and still would have been on the phone. If he get's a ticket he is much less likely to do it again. In my mind at least.