Friday 17th November 2017

Prior Convictions: Illegal driving acts

When it comes to legal technicalities, Matt P is your man

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A promoted post appears on social media. These are usually quite irritating and this is no exception, but for a change, it's almost relevant to what I do: it's a quiz, from Halfords Autocentres, asking whether I think I would pass my driving test again now.

Ha. Of course, I would. Just like you would.

So I click on it. And the questions begin. How old are you? How long have you been driving? Oh God, this info is eventually going to make for an interminable press release, telling me old men are the worst drivers, isn't it? Already I dislike it.

Then it gets under way properly. "What is this switch?" Front fogs, obviously. Tick.

"What's the minimum legal tyre tread depth on a car?" 1.6mm, obviously. Tick.

A stopping distance question (wrong, but I can live with that; the correct answer, 12 car lengths in the wet from 30mph, is five times the distance we typically measure during Autocar's road tests), alcohol level (correct), a road sign (correct), and then:

"Which of these is an illegal act and could land you with a hefty penalty?"

Hmm. Is it: "Paying with a smartphone at a drive-through, eating while driving, or having an open bottle of beer in your car?"

Well. I dunno. A drive-through is private property. Eating while driving is probably fine in itself, although if you fail to keep proper control of your vehicle you'll be scuppered. And beer? I thought it was OK but I also think I heard a story once about not having open alcohol in a car, so, OK, beer it is.

The quiz says I'm wrong. The quiz says that using a phone while driving is illegal (which I know ) and that therefore I can be fined at a drive-through, which I don't believe, because it's private land, right?

Well, right, but here's where it all gets a bit iffy. There were a few stories on this subject in the tabloids earlier in the year about this but I'll admit they passed me by. A car park might well be private land but that doesn't mean the road traffic act doesn't apply because the law says it applies 'on a road or other public place'. Car parks, even though the land is owned by somebody else, generally come under that jurisdiction because you're welcome onto them. There was a post on PH a few years ago where two lads were fined for taking their seat belts off just prior to parking their car in Tesco's car park.

So the short of it is that, on that technicality, the quiz might be right.

But you're not actually going to get six points at Uncle Ronald's, are you, because how would that go in reality? At some point, it would have to be successfully argued that you were not properly parked, but by definition you are, otherwise - forget smartphones - all these years you could have been prosecuted for failing to keep proper control of your vehicle. 'Cos you shouldn't give and receive goods through an open window unless you're correctly parked.

But more importantly, it would have to be argued that you were in a public place, which, according to the Road Traffic Act, is a place "to which the public, or part thereof, have access". You might argue they do but isn't it implied that somewhere where you are engaged in a financial transaction is actually a very private place indeed? After all, "the onus is on the prosecution to establish that a particular location was a 'road' or 'other public place'". I don't imagine they'd manage it, or think it worth their while trying.

Unless what if? What if, while paying for a burger, a driver's foot slips off the clutch and they lurch into a pedestrian? You tell me below whether you think I'm right or wrong but might that bring the issue into rather sharper focus?

They say there's no such thing as a stupid question, but when it comes to quizzes, if it has no definitive answer, I'm inclined to disagree.

[thunderpigeon]

I would also argue that eating at the wheel is illegal also. I had a client who was given 3 points on her licence (an MS60 - Offences not covered by other codes (including offences relating to breach of requirements as to control of vehicle)) for eating an apple in a queue of traffic.

A Jobsworth officer I am sure, but I have heard of others having a polite conversation at the side of the road for eating/drinking while driving.