Posted on 10/26/2009 9:54:41 AM PDT by ZGuy
A friend just got a ticket for talking on his cell phone while in his parked car in a Starbucks parking lot. He got his coffee and, with the car parked, started the engine and made a call to his next appointment to say he was on his way. A cop pulled up, walked over and wrote him up for talking on his cell phone while “driving” (even though the car wasn’t on the road or moving). The cop said that the new law is interpreted the same way as drunk driving--if you are behind the wheel of a car, drunk, while the engine is running, you can be arrested for DWI. So too they can write you up for talking on a cell phone while behind the wheel of a running, albeit parked, vehicle. The law is another gift from Arnold.
Ridiculous! When the driver hangs up, the call is over. If he’s DUI, he’s DUI for a while.
This isn’t a question of impairment; it is a question of ‘revenue’ for a severely strapped bankrupt state.
His mistake was in starting the engine. Sorry happens to be the way it is being enforced. Get a hands free voice activated system then you don’t have this problem
Another whizkid interpretation to keep LEO’s from thinking.
Shouldn’t he be DRIVING to get a DUI?
Cart before the horse to get easier convictions.
People have been busted in their own driveways listening to the radio.
i've wondered if this was the case... to be safe, i just wear a headset... i would try fighting this ticket...
So...how do the cops talk to their stations these days?
Take it to court.
Demand a jury trial.
The judge may side with the cop. But there’s no way normal people would find this guy guilty.
It ceased being about public safety a LONG time ago... It’s about revenue!
The law was intended to stop distracted driving and to give a legislator something to campaign on, not hurting responsible people having a cup of coffee.
Its hard to believe this is really if he’s on private property. If he was on the road then maybe but not in the situation in the story. Id go to court and fight it.
If someone is drunk behind the wheel in a parked vehicle, that is presumptive evidence of DUI: In the driver’s seat of a car means he intends to drive, and he will be drunk for a while. There’s no “off” button for that. A phone conversation ends in an instant and the impairment is completely gone.
Suppose you are driving by yourself and talking on a hands-free device. Are you at risk of being pulled over for suspicion of using a cell phone?
However, I have to go with the nanny state in banning cell phone use while driving (except hands free) since my elderly mother got T-boned and badly injured by a dope yakking while driving.
An unfortunate side-effect of any law is that you have little nazis like this who abandon common sense in the enforcement.
Yeah, the person should have made the call before they started the engine. But like drunken driving, there ought to be a huge difference in the penalty beween somebody driving 5 m.p.h. two miles home and someone cruising down the wrong side of the freeway at 70 mph.
A decent cop would give them a written warning. A decent judge would dismiss the case and consider it lesson learned for the inconvenience of taking time off work to show up in court.
What are the chances of being seen by a cop in a coffee shop parking lot?
It is all about neoprohibition and even the founder of MADD herself left the organization when she realized that was the goal.
In Dallas they were citing people ($500 a pop) at a hotel bar with “public intoxication” after a few drinks because “you MIGHT get behind the wheel later to get some food at a burger joint” even though they were staying at the hotel.
In Utah they want ALL cars to have breathalyzer ignition systems.
But because you are in a car is “evidence” that you are “going somewhere” then the driver with the engine running and cellphone engaged was “driving”.
Circular discussion.
Either the vehicle is on the road or it isn’t. They took a man to court for fatally shooting to robbers who were coming to a man’s property because he “may have acted too soon”.
Lots of people talk to themselves or sing along to the radio. Better knock that off. :•)
Good point. Also how about all taxi cabs, UPS trucks, interstate semi traffic. Are all of these groups excepted under the law from talking while driving? Once again, does this law circumvent the equal protections clause of the constitution? What is the difference if a driver of a taxi talks on a radio versus a cell phone?
Silly. Everyone knows laws don’t apply to cops. Ever met a cop who actually comes to a full stop at a stop sign?
This enforcement policy has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with California’s mega-billion dollar deficit.
Most states do not allow traffic tickets to be written on private property. Tell your friend to check into that.
For instance, if you hit a car in a parking lot, you could be shown as ‘at fault’ on the police report, but receive a traffic citation for whatever traffic law you disobeyed.
aRnie, the gift that keeps giving,, uhh, giving your dough to green-fascists
Here is your friend’s ticket out of his ticket. Being in the Starbucks parking lot is his get out of ticket free card.
Hope it helps!
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/article-29709.html
Ban on Handheld Cell Phones
The first law bans all drivers from using handheld cell phones while driving, starting July 1, 2008. The law does not affect passengers — they are free to use cell phones while traveling in an automobile. The law applies to anyone driving in California, whether the driver lives in California or not.
Exceptions. There are a few exceptions to the general ban. Handheld cell phones may be used:
to make an emergency call to a law enforcement agency, medical provider, fire department, or other emergency service agency
by those operating authorized emergency vehicles, and
by those operating vehicles on private property.
The DUI laws say if you are in a parked car, (engine running or not) and have the keys in the car or on your person, you are charged with DUI.
I'd tell this guy to fight the ticket since the responsible thing to do with a cell phone is to pull to the side of the road to make/receive the call. Weather or not the engine is running is not germane to the intent of the law which is to prevent distracted driving. (And a cup of hot coffee can be more far distracting than a cell phone if you spill it on your lap. Maybe he deserves a ticket for sitting in his car with coffee too. ;~))
Small town cops tried to bust me for DUI while parked two weeks ago. I drove 90 miles to Midland to shop, had a big steak dinner with a single beer and drove home. About 30 miles from home I felt very sleepy and decided to take a nap. Found a well lit church parking lot in Seminole and pulled in.
About 11:00 p.m. cop bangs on my window and asks what I'm doing. Tell him I was sleepy and stopped to take a nap. Tells me to get out of the truck and says my eyes are bloodshot. Ask if I was drinking and tell him I had a beer (which I didn't finish) with my meal. By then two more cops show up -- must be the entire police force! Then they run my plates and DL and both o.k. Ask me to take a breathalyzer test. I say no problem and blow 0.00. Then they tell me not to park there again and send me on my way. Can't complain about their demeanor, they were polite, but just the fact that I was rousted out while doing nothing but taking a nap in a lit parking lot pissed me off.
If I had blown anything below the legal limit, they could have said I was impaired (my stopping would have been evidence that I was, I guess) and hauled me in. Needless to say, I won't be taking a nap in that town again. Best to find another location.
A kid in our youth group got an 8 point ticket for doing donuts in his truck in a vacant field- his grandpa's. The ticket was for reckless driving, so I don't think private property matters.
8 points is a pretty excessive fine for a young guy- his insurance will be so high he'll proabably not drive for a long, long time.
What an A-hole cop. I didn’t know you could get ticketed on your own family’s property? We had a a private dirt road in Alabama that I learned to drive on at age 14. The cops there could have cared less that I drove on our own road while being underaged. I know this from the fact that one came onto the road once and pulled me over. He only wanted to know when my grandpa would be back in town so that they could go fishing at Lake Guntersville.
If the shop serves donuts..........pretty good.
“You want to find an outlaw, you hire an outlaw. You want to find a Dunkin Donuts, you call a cop.” - Raising Arizona
Great! I will definitely pass it along! Thanks!
I’m surprised California doesn’t give out tickets for turning on your car without driving — it’s such a waste of energy and all.....
Is this in CA?
What ? My young friend who got the ticket for donutting in his grandpa's field ? No, that was in Colorado.
I am sure I read of a law against idling for more than 3 minutes....I think it was in San Fransisco.
Private property absolutely matters and the kid you know got suckered into a ticket that he didn’t have to take if had fought it.
Not in California.
Doing donuts in a vacant parking lot (when I was a kid) is how I learned the difference between front wheel and rear wheel drive. Front wheel drive = Drive in reverse for donuts. Rear Wheel Drive (my dad’s Ford LTD) = Drive forward for the donuts. This is still the reason I prefer at least front wheel drive for snow (if no 4-wheel drive is available. Too bad I drive a rear wheel drive Mustang in Ohio now.
Of course, my dad would have taken my keys if he had caught me doing it.
Sounds like officer friendly needed to meet his quota of tickets for the day.
A little off topic, but I was headed to Ohare airport yesterday and came across a “photo enforced” sign before an intersection. I was going to turn right. I said to myself, “I’ll betcha this is a ‘no turn on red’ intersection.”
It was.
The interesting thing is that, as someone who has been driving for over four decades, it did not “feel” like a “no turn on red” intersection. There was plenty of visibility, traffic was light, etc.
I consider it a revenue light trying to get all us out-of-town dweebs in rental cars on our way to return the car.
>>Private property absolutely matters and the kid you know got suckered into a ticket that he didn’t have to take if had fought it.<<
Yep. The law is very black and white. Traffic laws are enforceable because driving is a privilege and not a right. You can buy a car and use it to get around your acreage without ever licensing it. You can drive it any way you want. You may violate various environmental laws, etc, but the TRAFFIC cops have no jurisdiction on private property (other than “public” private property like parking lots).
Imagine the cops writing a ticket to a farmer who turns too sharm while ploughing his field.
And in that is the kernal of the problem here: If a person without a drivers license is driving an unlicensed car on a dirt road on his own property, can he get a ticket for driving without tabs or a license? NO, because the law only applies to public roadways.
But I blather. This ticket really ticks me off, I must admit.
“Another whizkid interpretation to keep LEO’s from thinking.”
Law Enforcement Officers : thinking :: Obamacare : saving money
As more and more sh!t hits the fan, more and more “LEO’s” will be drooling and slavering as they snap at our heels, herding us into group lockups where their masters scan and search us for any contraband tobacco, “edged weapons”, or illegally-possessed silver.
Well, I don’t know of any state that allows for traffic laws to be enforced on private property... but if the kid plead guilty (or paid the ticket which is pleading guilty), there isn’t much he can do now.
Now, I also must clarify, if you are in a ‘public’ private property (not owned by you), and say your tag isn’t current, you can get a ticket. Simply because you must have driven there to get there.
But the kid on his grandfather’s land wasn’t being ticketed for improper registration and even if he didn’t have registration or insurance, it would apply if he wasn’t on the roadway. It PRIVATE private property, or owned by an individual.
At least that's my understanding.I certainly could be wrong.
Having cops who use common sense would be a better solution.
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