Safe Speed Forums

That would be the case. We sometimes do a breath test if the person admits to having a drink recently.


Oh mainly to be sure they are safe enough to continue. can you imagine the headlines if the pull collided .. hit in the wrong point.. caused a death . and was found to be above the limit?

We tend to play safe on that basis

Borderline roadside gives us reason to make a further test on a more reliable doo-dah at the police station.

I assure we use full professional obectivity and treat all with due respect as fellow ladies and gentlemen. We do not ever make things worse than they need be for folk out there. Why should we? Folk have a right to respect whatever they are suspected of doing and this is what annoys me about belladonna's daughter's encounter when bella and her family belong to the "good guys out there"in essential humankind matters. By all means breathalyse per random pull - but if there exists feeble evidence of another crime such as using a mobile phone per the original post which I know to be accurate as we know belladonna's take on life here .. then a stern warning of the dangers and a benefit of the doubt would have a more lasting effect in such a case :porpcorn: given a feeble evidence which can be handled by a clever trickiily astute lawyer

I ratherthink a friendly but stern word based on suspicion but not tangible proof would have been sufficient and lasting in lesson/ education learned in such a case

High handedness does not teach nor improve matters. We'd rather folk learn from their silliness or mistakes or perceived mistakes ..

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

Hi

Personally I would pull in as we can get engrossed in a conversation and such conversations are not the same as with a passenger in the car.


Now i know folks will come back to me pointing out that we use radios.. chat to pursuit management and so on. Now I am not going to say glibly "cos our teams have been trained" - but I think it fair to say that our management teams are aware of a traffic situation developing a bit more than some pen pusher or keyboard data puncher in some office routine as this will be the "bread and butter" of their roles here. To be fair and to put in perspective of the learned routine/expertise from "hands-on daily" routines here.

I am trying to say they know when to "shut up and let the officer behind the wheel make a very professional decision"

But if you get involved in a conversation on a hands free .. try to pull into a safe place to continue if you feel "argument set in in particular"


if you are using a hand held device .. PULL in and switch off the engine.. completely. The only exeption would be a genione 999 emergency call.

if our phone is in the jacket and there is no evidence of it being used or a call or text read or replied to .. then NO. You would not be prosecuted. If you handle the phone .. are seen to hold it .. or can be proven to have held in hands whilst driving . then you could be prosecuted.

As said .. if we have a doubt .. we offer the benefit of such doubt .. but stil explain the inherent dangers politely and in a friendly . professional and calm manner all the same

Shouting never did command respect .. nor does a "holier than thou" approach. We tend to keep a gentlemanly and ladylike professional approach as we find it works best overall

Now Alice has brought me a mug of choc Horlicks and so time for bed ..

_________________
Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

In Gear?

Why "switch of the engine completely". I understand an agree with the rest but for the life of me I can't see the danger of sitting in a lay-by making a phone call with the engine ticking over to keep the car warm.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Because if you are sitting in a stationary car with the engine running while using a phone the police can (and will) still steal £60 off of you. According to the law having the engine on means you are "driving".

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Andrew.

Re switching off engine:
The law goes murkey here. You can use a hand held when long standing stationery but not in a "short" queue stops regardless of engine off and on. So where's the line drawn I hear you ask? And I say unto you, I haven't a clue so I will be following In Gears advice about this.

I really hope there's a test case for this actually.

Scenario - person pulled over into layby. Winter evening. Outside temperature below freezing. Engine running, car in neutral, handbrake on. Driver on phone (hand-held). Jobsworth copper tries to do driver for "using a handheld mobile phone whilst driving".

In this situation it's pretty damned obvious that the driver has stopped in a layby and left the engine running as the outside temperature is below freezing.

For the record I have a Bluetooth hands free system integrated into the car's entertainment system which uses the front speakers and a built-in mic. My phone will either be in my jacket pocket or occasionally in the storage compartment under the centre armrest if it needs charging. I can answer or reject calls from the steering column remote. I can even browse the phone book from the head unit and dial a number from this. The only thing I can't do is send or read a txt message.

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Magistrates rule #1: "Never let justice get in the way of a conviction."

My TomTom integrates with my phone via bluetooth, and is quite clever in that it will read out incoming text messages (granted it doesn't cope too well with txtspk, but I don't tend to associate with people who can't type proper sentences anyway). To send, however, you would be absolutely bonkers, although completely legal in the sense of the new unnecessary law. Typing has to be done either on the touchscreen, with tiny letters at arms length, or using the remote to scroll to each letter in turn; it would be distracting both by its nature and by the frustration of the time-consuming entry method!!

As for having the phone in a pocket, was there not some stipulation that "an interactive communication function" had to be used to break the new law? This would presumably mean that one could play tetris on it with impunity, though you would no doubt fall under the existing, and perfectly suitable, law requiring due care and attention.

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Regulation without education merely creates more criminals.

Robin
Earlier I quoted the regulation. The approach is to ask is, is the device a "phone". For example a 2-way radio is exempt, but a 2-way combined with a phone is not, even of the phone side of things is switched off.
Then was it being "held" in the hand.

So ironically if you have an awkward bit of nasal discharge that your switched-off phone's antenna can reach and use to dislodge the said discharge, then you have committed an offence under the regulations - i.e. held a phone in you hand. However you can happily root around for that evasive bogey with a screwdriver or any other implement that comes to hand and not fall foul of car phone law. However Due Care & Attention may be a charge if a police man stops you with screwdriver up your nose. And technically picking you nose could be an offence if it was proved that inserting a digit into you probosceris distracted you! I always ask my passenger to assist me in these situations (lol).

Hope that makes sense.

But that is not an interactive communication function so wouldn't be illegal...?

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Andrew.

No!!!!
It is handling a device that can be used as a phone - regardless of whether or not it is switch on, that's illegal. I copied the law on an earlier post.

You can use a 2-way radio - its not a 'phone' for the purpose of the law. But if you have a combined 2-way radio/phone, you can not use this, even if the phone part is switched off!!

So passing you ringing phone to your passenger is illegal as well as passing it when its switched off. I know it tough and silly but I dont make the rules, (and rarely obey them lol). This is what may be catching alot of people out, but I imagine that an officer's discretion would bring about a sensible outcome in these bizzare circumstances.