cieranc:
The Sarge:
FFS! Using a mobile phone when held up in traffic will get you a ticket if spotted by Plod. End of.If it does get you a ticket, it will be wrongly issued and easily appealed. It wouldnât get to court. See above.
I would refer my Honourable Colleague to the reply I made earlier 
Yeah FBB we have a lad at work exactly like that. Difficult. He wonât answer the cab phone whilst driving or on a break because âitâs illegalâ. But the same lad would happily run 20 mins over his time to get back on a Friday, or knowingly over-load a vehicle if itâll mean heââ make more bonus. Seems to pick and choose whatâs legal and what isnât.
Iâm seeing this more and more with British lads (especially on these forums), and am starting to come round to LimeyPhils philosophy on the Eastern Europeans just getting on with the job with a can-do attitude.
More and more places I go to I see the British lads with the ânot my job/not my problem/not paid to do thatâ attitude.
Then the Poles who just crack on and not winge/backheel everything.
Whilst the vehicle is on a live carriageway he is in charge of the vehicle even when not running on a live carriageway he is still in charge but if he was static and not moving for a while get out of the cab and make a call.
Discoman did you read my post above on what the law actually says?
Itâs totally irrelevent if he was in charge of the vehicle or not, or on the carriageway or not.
What matters is if he was driving the vehicle.
cieranc:
Discoman did you read my post above on what the law actually says?Itâs totally irrelevent if he was in charge of the vehicle or not, or on the carriageway or not.
What matters is if he was driving the vehicle.
Cieranc, road and regulation uses are different to the Road Traffic Act, the police go by the latter, when sitting behind the steering wheel on a live carriageway regardless of if it is stopped or moving at 1mph you are driving, a motorway is nmot a place of safety if he had broken down and on hard shoulder different story in a live lane he can get done for being on the phone, vehicle regulations are nothing to do with the RTA whic police use check out the road traffic act on mobiel phone usage
I canât find any mention of mobile phones in the RTA or RTOA.
Only law I can find is in the above C+U regs.
Which begs the question, why put it into the C+U regs and the RTA/RTOA?
Iâm quite happy to be put right on this, if you can point me in the right direction ?
the best place to look is the Lord Hansard reports if you put in Lord Hansard in google it will come up ⌠C&U is a fallback for the police if they cant get him under the RTA they will get him under the C&U for certain offences.
Lord Hansard reports arenât the law though?
Keen to see where it actually says it in the legislation.
cieranc:
Lord Hansard reports arenât the law though?Keen to see where it actually says it in the legislation.
well no, but the law is an â â â anyway ⌠end of the day if a copper wants to nick a driver behind the wheel for using the phone when in a live carraigeway they will.
discoman:
cieranc:
Lord Hansard reports arenât the law though?Keen to see where it actually says it in the legislation.
well no, but the law is an â â â anyway ⌠end of the day if a copper wants to nick a driver behind the wheel for using the phone when in a live carraigeway they will.
Aye I get that mate, some coppers can be like that. But unless theyâve issued the ticket correctly in accordance with the actual law as written, that ticket will fall down on appeal. I reckon thereâs a fair few people who just accept these sorts of tickets without actually checking to see if itâs properly issued.
The Sarge:
limeyphil:
The Sarge:
FFS! WHAT phone call is so important that it canât wait - unless itâs an emergency it can wait.
How would you know if it was an emergency if you didnât answer it?
Just wondering like.
cieranc:
Discoman did you read my post above on what the law actually says?Itâs totally irrelevent if he was in charge of the vehicle or not, or on the carriageway or not.
What matters is if he was driving the vehicle.
It does state in regulation 110 that (basically) it is illegal to use a mobile phone on the road. So what is the definition of road? E.G. Would it be legal to use one in Tescoâs car park?
It doesnât, it says âdrive a motor vehicle on a roadâ.
So what is or isnât a road is largely irrelevent.
Itâs what constitutes âdriveâ that counts.
But to change the course of this thread a bit, Tescoâs car park would constitute a road. Although on private land, because it has public access the normal rules of the road apply.
IF not, then you could argue that the majority of A19 is not a road, as thatâs privately owned by McAlpine.
ND888 BIGJ:
cieranc:
Were you stationary in the traffic? Could you have swithced off the engine and made the phone call?No you are in charge of the vehicle and he was on a motorway. I got done using my fone in stationary traffic office noticed on the tracker i hadnt moved in 15 mins and called me to see what the hold up was and 2 beat plod seen me and issued a fixed penalty whilst i was in the que .Lesson learned for me
Tracker !..more like a â â â â , people like that want shootingâŚi cant stand knobs who keep ringing you up asking wots your ETA my answer when i get there âŚoff.
You are right cieranc, I should have stated on a road, which leaves the law open to more than the carriageway, but where does âa roadâ begin and end, legally? Tescoâs car park would usually be a private area open to the public, hardly the open road but still a road, in the main, I suppose. I have wondered whether the zebra crossings there have legal status, i.e. do pedestrians have priority, in law? OTOH when on our business estate (it has barriers) I donât consider it to be a road, even though Iâm hardly likely to be driving and using a phone there. What Iâm getting at though is that it would be legal to drive using a mobile phone as long as you werenât on a road, though still inadvisable.
No but barriers or not, because thereâs access to the public (colleagues, office workers, site visitors), the RTA still applies.
You could still be done for drink driving on private land if it has public access.
Zebra crossings, disabled parking bays, any parking bays have no legal stance on private land.
Hence the number of parking âticketsâ from private parking companies that we just throw in the bin. The ones from the motorway services etc. Them parking companies will never take you to court, because they know theyâll lose.
They rely on putting the frightners onto people by sending the chain letters threataning debt collectors, court action, bailiffs etc.
Reality is, if you donât pay up after theyâve sent their threat letters, they give up and move onto easier prey.
Back to the mobile phone in a traffic jam thing, the esteemed gents on the motoring legal forum we all know and love have thrown this up: parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN00366.pdf
A briefing note to the House of Commons explaining the mobile phone ban.
Of particular interest is this statement:
The prohibition applies when driving. Driving includes times when stopped at traffic lights or during other hold-ups that may occur during a typical journey when a vehicle can be expected to move off after a short while. In exceptional traffic jams, such as a lengthy stoppage on a motorway, it would be clear that someone wasnât driving if the engine was off. Ultimately whether someone is âdrivingâ will be a matter for the courts.
Now the OP doesnât state whether he was crawling along for that 45 minute delay, or whether he could have switched the engine off. But ND888 BigJ states his tracker showed he hadnât moved in 15 mins. In that situation, I would certainly have appealed.
stagedriver:
If the traffic isnât moving how the [zb] is a copper going to creep up on you and catch you?
He never said anyone crept up on him. He said âand 2 beat plod seen me and issued a fixed penaltyâ.
cieranc:
No but barriers or not, because thereâs access to the public (colleagues, office workers, site visitors), the RTA still applies.
You could still be done for drink driving on private land if it has public access.Zebra crossings, disabled parking bays, any parking bays have no legal stance on private land.
Hence the number of parking âticketsâ from private parking companies that we just throw in the bin. The ones from the motorway services etc. Them parking companies will never take you to court, because they know theyâll lose.
They rely on putting the frightners onto people by sending the chain letters threataning debt collectors, court action, bailiffs etc.
Reality is, if you donât pay up after theyâve sent their threat letters, they give up and move onto easier prey.Back to the mobile phone in a traffic jam thing, the esteemed gents on the motoring legal forum we all know and love have thrown this up: parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN00366.pdf
A briefing note to the House of Commons explaining the mobile phone ban.Of particular interest is this statement:
The prohibition applies when driving. Driving includes times when stopped at traffic lights or during other hold-ups that may occur during a typical journey when a vehicle can be expected to move off after a short while. In exceptional traffic jams, such as a lengthy stoppage on a motorway, it would be clear that someone wasnât driving if the engine was off. Ultimately whether someone is âdrivingâ will be a matter for the courts.Now the OP doesnât state whether he was crawling along for that 45 minute delay, or whether he could have switched the engine off. But ND888 BigJ states his tracker showed he hadnât moved in 15 mins. In that situation, I would certainly have appealed.
At no point did I switch off the engine and if I had it would have been for a minute tops it was very stop start 5mph traffic for 45 mins. I think all of this is down to the individual I will not and never have illigally used a mobile phone while driving, for the simple reason that it is the most easily avoidable 3 points you will ever get. You can creep over 40mph on a SC and get cought but you CHOOSE to use your phone which is why I will never do it, no one paid for my licence for me I have had to save to pay for it so Iâm not risking it for a clerks benefit. If I choose to speed then I deserve what I get given but I wonât be told to break a law to get the job done.
So youre driving along and come across the scene of an accident but didnt witness it. There is nowhere to safely stop but you slow right down to call emergency services to the scene. Will the porkmeisters do you or not??
coreysboys:
So youre driving along and come across the scene of an accident but didnt witness it. There is nowhere to safely stop but you slow right down to call emergency services to the scene. Will the porkmeisters do you or not??
Nope, itâs quite legal to use a handheld to dial the emergency services whilst you are driving.
