High Court Clarifies Law on Using Phone Whilst Driving
Date: Friday, August 02 @ 09:01:29 UTC
Topic:
On 31 July the High Court handed down a judgment which clarifies the law on the offence of using a mobile phone whilst driving.
The judgment states that it must be proved beyond reasonable doubt that the phone was being used for an 'interactive telecommunication function' at the time of the alleged offence.
Previously any interaction with your phone whilst driving was deemed an offence and the law has been slow to catch up to the numerous other purposes for which we use smartphones these days. Now there is a clear distinction between using the features of a smartphone such as navigation and music and the telephony features.
There is still the catch-all legislation of driving without due care, so this this is not a green light to drive one handed whilst holding your phone in the other and looking at a map. A good car mount should still be considered an essential but it does at least now mean we can use the SatNav and music functions and interact with them without fear of a fine so long as common sense is applied.
Source: pattersonlaw.com
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