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G4EBT > PHONEY 05.11.07 20:33l 156 Lines 6641 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 116983G4EBT
Read: GUEST DK5RAS
Subj: Minister copped on car phone
Path: DB0FHN<DB0MRW<DK0WUE<GB7FCR
Sent: 071105/1734Z @:GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU #:49960 [Blackpool] FBB-7.03a $:116983G4
From: G4EBT@GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU
To : PHONEY@WW
Hard on the wheels of the speeding Chief Constable copped by one of
his former chums, another "do as I say - not as I do" hypocrite bites
the dust.
This time, an MP on the phone in his car.
A Home Office minister who's regularly campaigned on road safety was
fined and had his licence endorsed with penalty points last week
after being convicted of driving while talking on his mobile phone.
Liam Byrne, the Immigration Minister, said that "he'd answered an
important phone call about a deportation issue when he was stopped
by the police".
Mr Byrne, Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, didn't attend the
court hearing but wrote a letter apologising for the offence.
It emerged that he already had three points on his licence for the
self-same offence, before pleading guilty to the charge of driving
a car while using a hand-held mobile phone. He was fined œ100GBP,
ordered to pay œ35GBP costs and was given a further three points.
The conviction means that he now has a criminal record and is
half-way to losing his licence.
His guilty plea is particularly embarrassing because he's in the Home
Office, where he once had responsibility for the police, and has
campaigned for tougher penalties for dangerous driving.
And this is a guy who has been caught not once, but twice, doing the
same thing, yet a hands-free car phone kit only costs about œ10.00GBP
He has spoken in the House of Commons of the need to cut road deaths and
accidents and tabled a petition in 2005 calling for tougher penalties for
dangerous drivers.
He also sat on the parliamentary standing committee that shaped the Road
Safety Act 2006, which increased fixed-penalty fines for driving while
using a mobile from œ30 to œ60 and introduced penalty points for the
offence. (Hoist on his own petard).
His website lists safer roads among the eight priorities on his action
plan for his constituency.
A fixed penalty carries with it a three-point endorsement and a fine of
œ60. In the most serious cases a convicted driver can be disqualified
from driving and face a fine of up to œ1,000.
The minister was stopped after the police spotted him talking on the
hand-set while driving in Birmingham on July 6. Because he did not
have his driving licence with him the police couldn't issue a œ60
fixed penalty ticket, so the case went to court where the penalties
are higher and costs are incurred.
Last week it emerged that drivers continue to flout laws banning the use
of a mobile telephone while driving. A study found that only one in 6,000
London motorists who use their hand-held mobile phone while driving are
caught.
It also emerged that only 50 fixed penalty notices are handed out every
day, although 2.6 per cent of motorists are seen using phones while
driving.
Between Feb and May the Metropolitan Police issued 7,959 fixed penalty
notices, compared with 7,008 for the same period last year. More than
126,000 people were penalised for the offence in 2005.
A spokesman for the Institute of Advanced Motorists said:
"Everybody who has a mobile phone, a car and a job could try to claim by
way of mitigation that their call was important. It is imperative that
ministers lead by example. If this call was so important, it should never
have taken place at the wheel of the car".
Quite so.
Research shows that drivers are four times more likely to have an accident
if talking on a phone - it makes little difference whether hands-free or
not. The only exception to the ban for using a hand-held phone in the UK
is for calling emergency services.
Phone records (hands held/hands free) are regularly produced in court to
establish whether a motorist was on the phone at the time of an accident.
Using a hand-held phone in the UK while driving is an "absolute offence".
If you've done it, you've done it - there is no need to prove that the
driver didn't have full control of the vehicle - the presumption is that
the use of the phone is, per se, a distraction, and hence, an offence.
For reasons which elude me, the use of a mobile mike for CB or amateur
radio was not made illegal when the legislation on car phones was
introduced, but that doesn't mean that the use of a fist-mike whilst
mobile won't risk prosecution.
Amateurs and CBers can't be compared to PMR users such as taxi-drivers as
they only use the mike for a few seconds for the briefest of instructions
- name and address of client etc.
Amateurs, on the other hand, using repeaters can sustain a QSO for several
miles while driving, and some do, though I think less these days than in
the past.
If a police officer sees someone with one hand on the steering wheel and
the other with a mike to his mouth for several minutes at a time, and in
the officer's opinion the driver doesn't have full control of the vehicle,
there's a risk of prosecution. (Drivers have been prosecuted for eating an
apple of taking a swig from a can of Coke while stationary at traffic
lights).
Sure, you could refuse to accept the ticket from the cop, take your
chances, go to court, plead not guilty, and stand trial. It would be
for the CPS to prove beyond reasonable doubt that what you were doing
amounted to driving without due care, or without due consideration to
other road users.
Having heard some of the banal waffle of amateurs on repeaters giving
a running commentary of the hazards they're creating and dodging while
weaving in an out of traffic trying to hold a QSO, I don't think it
projects a responsible attitude to other road users, either as a radio
amateur or a citizen.
Footnote:
In the UK, a defendant will have driven without due care and attention if
his driving has departed from the standard of care and skill that would,
in the circumstances of the case, have been exercised by a reasonably
prudent
and competent driver.
A "reasonably prudent and competent driver" doesn't drive with one hand
on the wheel, the other holding a fist mike, waffling about nothing
in particular for goodness knows how long.
The application of the standard enables this offence to cover cases
ranging from momentary lapses in concentration or minor errors of
judgement to deliberate bad old dangerous driving.
Holding a QSO whilst mobile is not a "momentary lapse of attention", nor a
"minor error of judgement" - it's a deliberate act which endangers other
road users.
The penalties range from 3-9 penalty points and up to œ2,500 fine.
Best wishes
David, G4EBT @ GB7FCR
Cottingham, East Yorkshire.
Message timed: 17:31 on 2007-Nov-05
Message sent using WinPack-Telnet V6.70
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