Use of phone vs use of satnav

[mph1977]

Cat said:

Reg 110 RVCUR 1986 said:

(1) No person shall drive a motor vehicle on a road if he is using—
(a) a hand-held mobile telephone; or
(b) a hand-held device of a kind specified in paragraph (4).

It even handily explains what is meant by hand-held:-

For the purposes of this regulation—
(a)a mobile telephone or other device is to be treated as hand-held if it is, or must be, held at some point during the course of making or receiving a call or performing any other interactive communication function

Basically if it's in a holder you don't commit the offence of driving whilst using a hand-held phone.

Cat

exactly

the legislation was not actually needed as existing offences vcovered it - see prosecutions for drinking pop , eating bananas etc ....

thelegislation is also quite specific about the devices covered by this specific offence - so police radios, other ES radios, Amateur, CB and PMR aren't covered ...

[Finlandia]

Bigends said:

Used to have hands free on the old VHF main scheme sets - small toggle by the indicator stalk. Pull towards to talk then release. Or push away to remain permanently open. Not sure if the current generation stuff have anything like this

That makes a lot more sense than having a big radio in your hand, pushing buttons and talking while changing gears.

[grumpy52]

Most BiB that I have interaction with fall into two categories , normal patrol using normal comms ,, some with earpieces to provide privacy when mingled with the public , and 'traffic' based whose main radios are in the car and are hands free with a push to talk button normally located on or near the gear lever .
The last time I was stopped by plod (routine 'white van' checks) the lady officer was interested how I answered two seperate phones and was very interested when I said the bluetooth headset I used could handle upto 4 phones , when she asked the cost I said less than the fine for not using it , and much less than the guilt of causing an incedent .