Laws around using mobile phones while driving?

textbook

Are you allowed to use your phone as a satnav (google maps) phone stuck to front screen in a holder ?

Are you allowed to listen to youtube while driving with the phone on the top of dashboard so person talking or singing is on screen?   (If someone took a photo of this, could you be prosecuted?)

Youtube with phone on seat so not visible?

Are you allowed to speak on the phone if  on loud speaker (handsfree)? 

youtube connected to bluetooth speaker?

ontheroad1970

I really would not advise having youtube visible on your phone while you are driving.  It is way too tempting to look at it, and then someone steps in front of you and you are distracted and hit them.  Being prosecuted should be the least of your worries, to be honest, otherwise get someone else to drive while you sit in the back watching music videos.  You can listen to music via your phone without using youtube as a means.  

DB1904

textbook said:

Are you allowed to use your phone as a satnav (google maps) phone stuck to front screen in a holder ?

Are you allowed to listen to youtube while driving with the phone on the top of dashboard so person talking or singing is on screen?   (If someone took a photo of this, could you be prosecuted?)

Youtube with phone on seat so not visible?

Are you allowed to speak on the phone if  on loud speaker (handsfree)? 

youtube connected to bluetooth speaker?

Yes as it's not being hand held. 

The phone on top of your dash is asking for trouble if you're seen touching it. 

Herzlos

You want to avoid touching it or being distracted by it. 

So use it as a sat nav in a mount but don't adjust it whilst driving. 

If you insist on YouTube music then make sure the screen isn't visible because it's a distraction. You're going to waste a lot of data doing that rather than internet radio, or playing MP3s or something.

Grumpy_chap

Youtube is fine.
Driving is fine.
Just not at the same time.

motorguy

Grumpy_chap said:

Youtube is fine.
Driving is fine.
Just not at the same time.

Exactly.

Just dont.  It'll not end well.  I drop my phone in to the side pocket and leave it there until i get out of the car.  

If someone NEEDS to be reachable when driving then bluetooth to the car or if it doesnt have one get a bluetooth kit.  

Grey_Critic

***If someone NEEDS to be reachable when driving then bluetooth to the car or if it doesnt have one get a bluetooth kit***

Not expensive and much safer.

TooManyPoints

The mobile phone legislation applies to hand held mobile devices. If they are in a holder they are not hand held. More than that, to be guilty of a mobile phone offence it must be used for "interactive communication". So you can use it to take photos, take videos and listen to music. This clarification follows from the case, in 2019, of Ramsey Barreto vs DPP:

Director of Public Prosecutions v Barreto [2019] EWHC 2044 (Admin) (31 July 2019) (bailii.org)

Mr Barreto was convicted following being caught using his phone to film an accident. He appealed to the Crown Court who upheld his appeal. The DPP took a "case stated" to the High Court who confirmed the Crown Court's decision by ruling in Mr Barreto's favour. The government has pledged to modify the law to close this loophole but they have been too busy partying to do so. This very day Frank Lampard was acquitted (with help from "Mr Loophole", aka Nick Freeman):

Frank Lampard AVOIDS prosecution despite being caught driving with mobile phone and coffee | Daily Mail Online

Of course drivers faffing about with phones (but not using them for interactive communication) can still be charged with careless driving or driving whilst not in proper control.

Aretnap

It's illegal to have a screen showing moving pictures in a position where the driver can see it.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1986/1078/regulation/109/made

The language of the law is rather archaic (it's from 1986) however "other cinematographic apparatus" would appear to cover a phone ahowing YouTube.

There's an exception which allows satnavs, Google maps and the like - that's "information to assist the driver to reach his destination". 

ontheroad1970

Breaking a traffic law isn't in and of itself the end of the world.  Killing someone because you were distracted by the video on youtube is the end of many people's worlds.  Just don't do it.

born_again

https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/fleet-industry-news/2021/12/17/new-rules-on-mobile-phone-use-while-driving-a-missed-opportunity