To have been on my phone while driving

[Ihaveaquestionn]

Okay okay… I know I was being unreasonable but I want to know what might happen next

I was Driving from nursery drop-off to pick up a prescription - turned onto the road where the doctors surgery and pharmacy are located.

I got a call from nursery and answered using hands free in my car but it wasn’t connecting so I picked up my phone from the seat next to me. I spoke to my daughters key worker briefly (around 30 seconds) while driving about 5mph slowly into a car park.

I noticed a man in a parked car (he was parked mounted on the kerb and idling!!!) was very obviously talking to his passenger about me being on the phone while driving and looked like he was taking a photo of me! He was holding his phone up sideways in my direction.

What will happen if he reports me? As I said I know what I did was wrong but he was also breaking the law by sitting there with his engine on!

I'm not sure that would hold - how could you prove it wasn't two separate instances of a stopped vehicle? Or that the timestamps were wrong / meddled with?

I'm not sure two potentially modified photos would be beyond reasonable doubt

So you want someone to come and say you did the right thing?

Seriously? Two pictures a second apart showing the car moving a few feet forward? Of course it’s enough. Police can get the record showing that a call was being made at the time.

No 😂

Unless you are in London parking on the pavement is not illegal. The Highway Code says you shouldn’t not that you must not so it’s advisory not actually a rule.

i didn’t say I was going to do anything but you asked if I had proof he was doing that, and I do

Damn

You were in the wrong, as you know, and complaining about the other man idling or pavement parking does not diminish what you did. I'm glad police are cracking down on this. I've been in near misses twice where a driver has been looking at their phone. There's just no excuse.

And that is why I said proof doesn’t mean anything.

You can’t predicate “getting off” this one just because you have photographic evidence of him “doing wrong”.

One is an offence, the other is a council advisory issue.

Where did I say I thought I’d get off anything because he was doing something wrong - just thought it was a bit hypocritical that’s all!

And thought maybe I’d report him if he reports me😂

I know it was the nursery but please pull over before answering a young girl did this and killed herself and her friend as she got distracted. X

He could have been filming her instead of taking photos.

If he sends the evidence to the police, they may well choose to prosecute- people have received points and fines as a result of this stuff.

However the likelihood is he's just trying to scare OP or will put the footage on one of those "awful driver" pages on Facebook.

Going 5mph in an empty Car park? I doubt it

Going 5mph in an empty car park? I doubt it

Have you never had a child in nursery? Or a child anywhere? Or a tiny bit of imagination?

Settle down - there’s no need to be rude

Any photo would be great evidence. We often only get verbal evidence. Eg policeman says I saw him on his phone whilst driving - dependent says no I wasn’t. Still enough to convict in most circumstances unless say it was foggy or view was obstructed in some way.

You think people don't get run over and killed in car parks? They do. Children usually.

You're a dangerous driver if you think answering the phone while your vehicle is moving is safe.

You can’t kill somebody going 5mph seriously calm down people

PP said the driver killed “herself and her friend” so entirely different scenario to what you’ve described

Exactly!

You can. Adults, maybe not, but small children have been killed by people reversing at slow speed off their driveways etc. And small children are exactly the kind of person you might not see if you were distracted by being on your phone

Fuck me, are people still doing this? I’ve been rear ended TWICE by idiots on their phones. Once I was stopped at lights, once at a junction. I got badly injured by the second one, who embedded his van in my Fiesta.

The few seconds it would have taken you to pull over and answer safely would make no difference at all to the person calling you, even if it was an emergency, but instead you choose to risk causing another emergency yourself.

Hopefully you will learn from this, but I don't think you will. You use him parked with engine running as equivalent to your dangerous, potentially lethal, behaviour, so I think you'll make the same sort of excuses continually until you either get caught or kill someone.
His behaviour does not excuse yours

Justify it all you like OP, you are a dangerous driver.

If you were in an empty car park as you claim, you could very easily have chosen to pull over and stop, and call the nursery back. You chose not to, and that's on you.

The number of laughing emojis you've posted, and the fact that you thought that idling on the pavement was an equivalent offence, say everything we need to know about it. You aren't in the least worried that you did something dangerous behind the wheel, but you're awfully concerned that you might get caught.