Claiming cellphone was a wallet wasn’t a smart defence
Even secret agent Maxwell Smart knew better than to talk on his shoe phone while driving. Get Smart people! It’s dangerous.
Our public auto insurance authority, ICBC, has teamed up with British Columbia’s police for a province-wide, month-long campaign against distracted driving. Operating a handheld electronic device such as a cellphone, while driving a motor vehicle, has been illegal in BC since January 1, 2010. Penalties include a $167 CDN fine and three penalty points on a driver’s license, which affects their auto insurance rate.
Distracted driving is no laughing matter, but people are always good for a chuckle. According to this item in The Vancouver Province newspaper, a B.C. Provincial Court Judge has brushed aside one defendant’s claim that he wasn’t even holding his cellphone, but rather his wallet.
“He (the officer) could see a shiny surface and blue light shining from the surface of the object,” the court documents read. “The driver’s lips were moving. He (the officer) says he made the observation for about eight seconds. As he signaled the driver to stop, he noticed the driver bring his right hand down sharply.”
Provincial Court Judge Hunter W. Gordon called it “It is an issue of credibility,” in his written verdict, which found Thandi guilty as charged and ordered him to pay the $167 fine.
“In my view, an experienced traffic enforcement police officer would neither mistake nor misinterpret what he was seeing between a hand at the right ear and a hand being held out in front of the driver and the lips of the driver moving.”
“I have heard the same explanation from male drivers at least a dozen times in the past couple of years and am somewhat skeptical when I hear this defense from male drivers who claim they were holding a wallet to their ear. It is a practice that holds no logic.”
ICBC says distracted driving causes an average of 91 deaths per year, making it the third leading cause of fatal car crashes in B.C, behind speeding and impaired driving, and caused a quarter of all crashes between 2008 and 2012, according to a CBC item on the September crackdown.
The last time your corespondent was doored while riding his bike, the driver admitted she was distracted by her cellphone.
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