Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
That's correct, it's not a specific offence. If the police catch you, the offence you'll be charged with is "driving without due care and attention".
If you'd like an example (in this case a woman prosecuted for eating an apple while driving), there's one here. After the court case (the woman opted to go to court rather than accept a fixed-penalty charge) the police said: |
In fact if one goes to the trouble of reading your link the matter was not just that she was "eating an apple while driving" as you claim but that she was negotiating a left turn into a junction with an apple in her right hand. The charge would indeed have been along the lines of driving without due care and attention and even if one just relies on the news story the same would likely have applied no matter what she was holding or doing that caused her to lose her care and attention. As the media have a habit of leaving facts out that distract from sensationalism and so focusing on an apple, rather than perhaps on her erratic driving at the time, makes a great story; that just as the liberty you have taken in your post by your focussing on the apple and omitting to mention the inconvenient to your case driving manoeuvre she was performing at the time.
In the end you claimed in your previous post that "doing things like reading, using a mobile phone, or even drinking from a bottle of water, are all illegal while stopped at traffic lights, railway crossings, and so on." whereas (with the exception of mobile phone use) they are in fact not illegal and we now seem to be in agreement on that point.
The UK Highway Code (as do the codes of other countries, including my own) lists some things to avoid "..when driving or riding, such as..." as they may cause a distraction, but in fact that list is both just an advisory not a statement that they are illegal nor not to be done at all, and is not meant to be exhaustive. Doing anything whatsoever that causes a loss of due care and attention may result in a charge. That being so your case would seem to lead to the silliness of a driver being charged doing anything whatsoever, regardless of the status of the vehicle at the time (even "stopped", you say), if there is any possibility at all that such an anything whatsoever activity could during some conceivable future use of the vehicle lead to a loss of care and attention.
Why is it that in UK TV programs such as "Top Gear" we see the talent driving on UK roads adjusting the likes of radios and nav. systems, and sometimes eating and drinking (including your "bottle of water") without charges resulting as you claim they should be? The answer seems obvious, I have never seen a case where the situation was resulting in a loss of care and attention.
I'll leave it at that and won't respond further; it is much more fun wondering why if your claim is true why there are radios, cup holders and ashtrays in UK vehicles if one cannot use them (and why everything in Texas is big).