Stopped for using mobile phone while driving

[DrivingOffence]

Regular mumsnetter name changed for this as I'm very ashamed of myself.

I was driving, queuing in traffic (so not moving), looked at my phone for no good reason, I know this is illegal and irresponsible. I didn't notice there was a police officer on the other side of the road and he obviously pulled me over, took my license details and logged the offence. He asked why I was using my phone and I had to say I had no good reason, I didn't.

Could anyone advise me please what is likely to happen? I have looked it up and it seems that the minimum penalty is 6 points and a £200 fine, so I assume I'll get that. Is there a risk of further prosecution/penalties?

Any advice most welcome and feel free to tell me what an irresponsible idiot I am, I know I am but deserve a kicking tbh.

This 100%. It's not using it whilst stationary is the problem. It's that they aren't paying attention and then rush to move so don't do all the usual checks or aware of whats around them.

Oh gosh , I'm sure many of us reading this are making a mental note never to touch their phone in a traffic jam or similar.
I think this could have happened to a lot of us.
Not condoning, but I know ( very stupidly) that I've done this.

Yeah and I'd wager a significant proportion of those responders have driven over the speed limit on multiple occasions.

Yes, this is very true.

Oh best friend is serving 7 years in prison for causing death by dangerous driving while texting. If the ops picking up her phone in a traffic for absolutely no reason, I’d be willing to bet she’s used it while the cars moving

No speed, which is why I said stationary traffic

From a chap who used to work in car insurance, multiple studies have shown that you are distracted for several minutes after you have been using your mobile phone. It is proven that if you use your mobile between games when gaming you are more likely to lose the next game too.

You are meant to be paying attention to what is happening around you even when stationary. It is why you are meant to check all your mirrors before you move off in case anything has changed ie cyclist or motorbike moving between the stationary cars but also pedestrians. Just because you are stationary doesn't mean everything else is.

I see this point now and it's not something I had fully considered before but of course it makes sense. Thank you.

Yes, of course even one persons life being lost is dreadful. I’m just dubious that anyone has ever been killed by a stationary car!

I do take the point that if using while stationary you may continue to be distracted and pull off and hurt someone though.

As above, I find it strange that picking up your phone while stationary is illegal, but faffing through multiple screens on an in car system while driving is actually legal.

I find having my kids (especially the baby) in the car to be a huge distraction at times . Far more dangerous than picking a phone up while stationary, but it’s unavoidable most of the time.

I agree no need for the holier than thou and berating. @DrivingOffence has not tried to excuse what she did, not even to the police officer at the time and is willing to accept the consequences and has learned from it as well as some of the points made on here that she hadn’t considered.

My relative was stuck in motorway traffic for 5 hours recently, she kept her husband updated with messages. If she hadn’t, at some point he’d have had the police out searching for her. I don’t know what the answer is in those situations.

Also, I went in a Tesla the other day, could not believe how massive the screen was, it was like having a telly right next to the steering wheel. Ridiculous.

@DrivingOffence If you look at the number of people fined for this you are not alone in doing it. Hopefully people will think about it more. It is not about the stationary car it is the distraction.

We watched a lot of dash cam videos of hits and near misses for when Ds was learning to drive so he could see what dangers there were out there. Hence why I also watched ItsBigJobber who worked in insurance claims. He comments on liability from accident videos, very interesting stuff especially the people who argue the other way. He is the one who states the studies into distraction.

Quite.
But I would be willing to bet that won't stop another 15 pages of smug judgy pants posts, because there is nothing MNers like more than someone who admits they are wrong to keep putting the boot into.

My OH got a mobile awareness course, cost about £90 to book on.
No points, no fine and didn't need to declare to insurance.
Hopefully your area will do something like this.

I think many of us are guilty of this if we are being totally honest.
Don't beat yourself up.

@BrieHugger my car allows me to dictate messages, no need to touch my phone at all. I am aware not every car will have this. It also reads any messages aloud but asks permission first. Unless I am driving for a long time I ignore all messages but then I lived a life before mobile phones when you were just uncontactable.

I have to say if I was stuck on the motorway for hours and hours I would really struggle not to use my phone. I doubt it meets the definition of "safely parked" but I wonder if mitigating circumstances would apply. You would still need to be aware of what's around you though if and when the traffic finally starts moving again.

But you shouldn't be using your mobile phone at all whilst driving!

Thank you.
I hadn't heard of a phone awareness course, I really hope it is an option for me 🤞

I had to look up the stats on phone use related car deaths and the latest year reported looks to be 22. Now this is absolutely 22 too many but I can't believe that any of these involved stationery vehicles, how would that even happen?
Efforts should be directed to the drivers I see every day literally typing while moving at sometimes quite high speeds

Would it? I don’t think so. The current remedy doesn’t seem to working, does it?

This happened to me a few years ago and I remain so ashamed that only DH (and my insurance company) know about this in real life. I sent a quick text saying I was ‘on my way’ while stopped at some familiar traffic lights near home where I knew I had a long wait. I will be honest and say I didn’t know it was an offence if you weren’t moving and had the handbrake on, so I didn’t pay any attention to the police car stopped at the lights next to me…

I got 6 points and a fine which came through about 2 weeks later. Whilst I will never be ‘glad’ it happened it has made me rigorous about sticking to the speed limit and never touching my phone, even now the points have expired. I never want to find myself pulled over by the police again. If other mumsnetters take a warning from stories like ours then so much the better.

What was the point of looking at your phone though? You admitted you had no good reason, so next time you might be cruising along at 30, 50 or whatever and someone behind you with an addiction to their phone who also wants to check it for no real reason, might just do that and plough into the back of you…or a cyclist, or a pedestrian they don’t see. You have to accept the consequences of this and be thankful that the officer was doing their job.

I can't help you OP but I'm addicted to checking my phone whilst driving and I don't know how to stop?

Did you have your brake on? In which case you could ask for mitigating circumstances. If you didn't then there's nothing you can do

The examples are obviously a world apart, but 'stationary' traffic isn't really.

It's moving up bit by bit, changing speed regularly, people getting impatient and breaking rules like driving around in the wrong lane / side of the road) , pedestrians cutting through between vehicles etc.

It's hard to keep track of, you're closer to everything and everyone else then normally, and if you're distracted and not paying attention you're very likely to inadvertently come into contact with something and cause damage or injury.