Mobile Phone Use

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Wed 19 Mar 2003 09:04
Mobile Phone Use - UncleR
Watching 'Traffic Cops' last night and the eagle eyed officer spotted someone driving using their mobile phone. They were not driving badly, carelessly or erraticly but he pulled the man over and said that he was issuing him with a fixed penaltly fine of £30 but not giving him any points.

Soon, it will be an offence to use a handheld but at the moment it isn't unless you are driving without due care and attention etc. Given this, how could the officer issue this ticket? I would have told him to stick it! The bloke just accepted it because he probably thought it was an offence.

Am I missing something here? It looks like a case of the law enforcement of non-existent laws!

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Sat 22 Mar 2003 15:37
Mobile Phone Use - Tom Shaw
The police do not have to prove that a moving traffic offence was being comitted in order to bring a prosecution in this case. The charge would be that the driver did not have proper control of the vehicle. That is if an emergency occurred whilst the car was being steered with one hand and the drivers attention was was on the conversation he was having instead of the road then his ability to deal with it would be impaired.

Be very difficult to convince a magistrate otherwise in the climate of current opinion on mobile phone use. My local paper reports that the police are using unmarked vans fitted with a camera in order to catch mobile users on the move. I've just dug out the hands free kit in case, being unable to resist the ring of my Nokia.
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Mon 24 Mar 2003 17:39
Mobile Phone Use - jeds
I was watching a documentary a few months ago which was basically a camera crew riding with a Police Patrol Vehicle - can't remember what it was called but it doesn't really matter.

The Patrol Car was looking for drink drivers late at night on the outskirts of Nottingham. The Officer stopped a car because it swerved to avoid hitting the kerb - nothing unusual there.

The Officer approached the car and came back a minute or two later, grinned at his colleugue and said something like 'It's ok she was just lighting up a cigarette'. These might not have been the exact words but they are close enough.

I wondered why he let her get away with that. It seems to me to be equally as dangerous as using a mobile phone or drink driving come to that.
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