Help wrongly accused of using mobile phone whilst driving

grayme-m

kev7n84 wrote: »

I'm glad justice prevailed, Its a shame though that this bacame a police bashing thread.

Whilst your husband was telling the truth, lets not forget there's plenty of people out there that will plead their innocence, when they were in fact guilty to get out of a fine and now points.

This is why we have to trust the police, im sure they don't go out of there way to accuse innocent people using there phone's when driving, its not like there on commision. Asd stated previously it would be absurd for their tobe hard eidence every time a crime is committed. If a policeman witnesses a fatal stabbing, recognises the killer, doesn;t cath him there and then, but doesn't have a handy camcorder too hand, should the killer get off?

Isn't this a contradiction, if 'we have to trust the police' then madmax2's husband was clearly guilty and a liar and justice has not been done...?

Can someone correct or collaborate, but I thought that police had targets of people to catch doing certain offences, which is similar.

kev7n84 wrote: »

As for the many comments about speed camera's, its simple, don't break the law and you wont get caught. Break the law, get caught, face the consequnce, dont go monaing about it. If people didnt break the speed limits there would be no camera's, unfortunately people do, they believe they have a right to, but let them try explaining that to a childs parents after you couldn't break in time and killed them.

:wall:

kev7n84 wrote: »

But i suppose life would be better with no speed camera's, no police (cus we can't trust them can we?!).. lets hope that day comes soon so the people on this thread can show us all how right they were, and how much safer britain is without those pesky coppers.

This hardly helps your argument IMHO.

TilerJack

I recently got a £60 fine and 3 points for taking my phone out of my pocket looking at the screen then putting it down again. I was stationary at the time in traffic so could not have been driving dangerously. I believe I have been treated unfairly and it make's me so angry because I am a safe driver and have no points does anyone think it is worth fighting this?

BruceyBonus

TilerJack wrote: »

I recently got a £60 fine and 3 points for taking my phone out of my pocket looking at the screen then putting it down again. I was stationary at the time in traffic so could not have been driving dangerously. I believe I have been treated unfairly and it make's me so angry because I am a safe driver and have no points does anyone think it is worth fighting this?

Unfortunately, if the engine was switched on then you were still "driving".

grayme-m

TilerJack wrote: »

I recently got a £60 fine and 3 points for taking my phone out of my pocket looking at the screen then putting it down again. I was stationary at the time in traffic so could not have been driving dangerously. I believe I have been treated unfairly and it make's me so angry because I am a safe driver and have no points does anyone think it is worth fighting this?

As BruceyBonus said, technically you were driving.

I took a few advanced driving lessons and pulled up to a set of traffic lights, put on the handbrake and put my hands on my knees.

The instructor informed me that technically I could be persued for not being in full control of the vehicle... :rolleyes:

DonnyDave

grayme-m wrote: »

As BruceyBonus said, technically you were driving.

So when you pull up at the side of the road, put your handbrake on and take the car out of gear and leave your engine running and your passenger gets out, you are still "driving"?

KeithP

DonnyDave,
yes.

A more fascinating question might be...
So when you pull up at the side of the road, put your handbrake on and take the car out of gear and leave your engine running and get out of your car and stand on the pavement and use your mobile phone, are you "still driving"?

peterstannard

What about someone who is using the sat nav feature on their N95 (or other) whilst driving?

gromituk

You forget that if the phone is in a holder, it won't automatically qualify as an offence.

However, that doesn't mean you can't be done if you are driving carelessly due to being distracted for any reason, including prodding buttons on a phone or sat-nav in a holder.

tight-git

BruceyBonus wrote: »

Unfortunately, if the engine was switched on then you were still "driving".

can someone here clarify this , like many many other drivers, i stop on the side of the road , lay by , car park !!! to talk -to me stopped is stopped NOT driving , as DRIVING and talking is not right !
CAN the police still charge me for 'driving' and using the mobile?? or do i have to get out of the car and risk being hit by on coming traffic and rain on , wind etc???:eek:

gromituk

Don't be silly. All you have to do is switch off the engine.

Edit: of course, if a corrupt policeman still wants to give you a ticket then there's nothing you can do about it, but if the engine is off, you are not driving.

Look at it from the other point of view - several times I've asked drivers waiting at traffic lights to stop using their mobile phones, and invariably I get the excuse that they aren't driving. So what happens when the lights change? Whether they are ignorant of the law or just pretending, I don't know, but in these situations there needs to be some clarity, and having the engine switched off seems to be a reasonably good way of defining "not driving".