Mobile phone use while in stationary car??

[Dave7]

What is unreasonable about switching off an engine? You shouldn't be idling unnecessarily anyway.

A few years ago I was working in Switzerland. Cold morning.....I started the car and sat while windows cleared etc. Knock on the window........a group of school kids telling me not to sit with the engine going. Considered myself told off

 

[Slick]

Must be a Scottish thing, as I was once stopped after a long night shift in Clydebank and the charge quoted by the officer was "Drinking a bottle of ginger in a moving motor, pal." I didn't know wether to laugh or cry.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

It does, but the law has to be perceived as reasonable. Say I was parked in a car park, engine running to keep the heater going on a cold day, handbrake applied. Id be pretty pissed off if I was prosecuted for use of a mobile phone under those circumstances, as would, I suspect, the majority of people

You ought to be charged with polluting in an enclosed space as well.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

We get RLJd on average twice a week on the school run. Main culprit? Phones.

Phones that drive, what a time to be alive. Or dead if they are RLJing.

 

[NorthernDave]

If youre anywhere in a public place - road, parking bay, middle of a field for a car boot sale - and the engine is running, the offence is complete.

Thats the (CPS) Directors guidance on the matter. Engine off, handbrake applied, not manipulating any controls.

I wonder if stop/start and auto handbrake technology now means the guidance needs updating? Otherwise I could see Mr Loophole making even more money.

The stop/start bit is interesting.
If the driver stops, car in neutral, handbrake on, the stop/start will shut the engine down - most reasonable people would argue that the engine is now 'off' (it's not running, no fuel is being burned, no emissions are being produced). However, thanks to the wonders of technology, the car can switch the engine back on at any second and without warning, a matter over which the driver has no control.
Is the driver then committing an offence? Presumably technically yes, although they'd be unlucky to find a particularly zealous constable observing them doing so?

Not that any of this matters to me, as my car has one of those incredibly rare working Bluetooth systems

 

[Smokin Joe]

[QUOTE 5405623, member: 9609"]and from my experience of being stopped, all you have to do is pass the attitude test - just be nice and friendly and I have never know a copper be anything other than nice and friendly back. No point winding them up like some idiots do.

(I have done a colossal mileage in my time, could be as little as a pull over once every half million klicks)[/QUOTE]
So it was my "Haven't you got anything better to do than harrassing law abiding motorists, you jumped up little Hitler", that got me nicked? I did wonder why they went to all that trouble over a brake light

 

[screenman]

Thing that double annoys me is the number of cars with pooptooth fitted where the drivers still use a handheld phone. What a wrong with these People?

Bone idle, ignorant, inconsiderate how many more do you want?

 

[nickyboy]

You ought to be charged with polluting in an enclosed space as well.

Yeah, why not. In an open car park. We can add another to the list of idiotic laws

 

[classic33]

Must be a Scottish thing, as I was once stopped after a long night shift in Clydebank and the charge quoted by the officer was "Drinking a bottle of ginger in a moving motor, pal." I didn't know wether to laugh or cry.

Don't drink and drive.

 

[Bazzer]

The stop/start bit is interesting.
If the driver stops, car in neutral, handbrake on, the stop/start will shut the engine down - most reasonable people would argue that the engine is now 'off' (it's not running, no fuel is being burned, no emissions are being produced). However, thanks to the wonders of technology, the car can switch the engine back on at any second and without warning, a matter over which the driver has no control.
Is the driver then committing an offence? Presumably technically yes, although they'd be unlucky to find a particularly zealous constable observing them doing so?

Not that any of this matters to me, as my car has one of those incredibly rare working Bluetooth systems

Not necessarily. Mrs B's car will not switch off when the car is in neutral, but will when stopped, with the foot brake applied when in gear. And i believe Mrs @I like Skol 's vehicle does the same.

 

[Slick]

Don't drink and drive.

Lol, that was the message I took from it.

On his behalf, it was early morning with low lying sun and it was close to a school so he did have a point.

 

[NorthernDave]

Not necessarily. Mrs B's car will not switch off when the car is in neutral, but will when stopped, with the foot brake applied when in gear. And i believe Mrs @I like Skol 's vehicle does the same.

The sequence I listed is how it works in my car - it will also shut the engine down if it's in gear with the clutch depressed and not moving. It doesn't need the handbrake to be applied.

 

[Low Gear Guy]

How does the law apply to an electric vehicle? Do they go straight from off to powered?

 

[Moodyman]

Texting whilst stationery is deemed normal round here. In fact, one driver I sat with recently got his phone out and responded to a text whilst doing 80mph in the third lane of the motorway. He was using the cat's eyes to identify if he was veering out of his lane. Absolutely mad.

Told him I will never again take a ride in a car he was driving.