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| Phoning at the wheel can lead to these sorts of mishaps |
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| Michael Laucke |
Up until Michael Laucke entered the pic, the belwether decision was that which found Constantino Chadjiioannou guilty of a cell-at-the-wheel violation even though he pulled his car over on Acadie Boul. to make his call on Feb. 10, 2010 at 4:15 p.m.
Chadjiioannou felt that he was within his rights to jibber-jabber on the blower after he had pulled his car over.
So Chadjiioannou fought the ticket but to no avail.
Justice Gilles Ouellet upheld the $80 fine on Aug. 30, 2012.
The judge noted that the parking lane is part of the road and that regardless of whether you're stopped or not, you're still technically driving, just as if you're waiting for a red light.
Michael Laucke, a well-known jazz guitarist with a fantastic umlaut in his first name that I can't quite replicate on this keyboard, was ticketed for doing the same thing at a spot around Girouard and Sherbrooke on Jan. 12, 2012.
Laucke contested his talking-while-parking ticket, issued by an officer Ethier, and his case was heard by the very same judge on Dec. 3, 2012.
But this time Ouellet decided that Laucke should not get a ticket, apparently because his parking space was more legit.
It seems Chadjiiouannou had pulled over in a lane that could be used for parking or driving, whereas Laucke's spot was in a place that was never used for driving.
So Laucke was acquitted for doing something very similar to what the same judge had deemed illegal only three months earlier.
One might imagine that Chadjiioannou might've been acquitted too because his offense appears to have been more along the lines of a no-stopping, or no parking infraction, tickets he did not receive.
Also in December, another judge acquitted a man who had received a ticket because he picked up a phone while sitting the passenger seat. The officer ticketed him on the logic that the car belonged to him, which doesn't make much sense and the judge agreed and wiped it out.
Cyclists are also targetted for cellphone abuse. See:
ReplyDeletehttp://sfbay.ca/2012/04/24/tickets-floated-for-phone-weilding-cyclists/
the only conclusion that I can reach from your reporting is that cops are real, genuine dicks. And by dicks I mean nasty pricks.
ReplyDeleteYup, cops are dicks.
ReplyDelete18 months ago, I was given $1600 in tickets for taking pictures. See copy of tickets.
Yes, for taking pictures.
And the article (7) invoked in the tickets has been revoked 4 years prior!!!
Cops are indeed dicks.
I walk downtown everyday between Atwater to Bleury areas and easily 60% of drivers have their cell phone on their laps texting. In darker light the glow the screens shines on their faces. Take the 211 bus and look down at passing cars doing 110km - cell phones illuminated on drivers laps held in one hand. My friend has been rear ended twice as he stopped at a light, one of the hits totalled his car. Both times he got out ran to the driver car behind to see if a cell phone had flown out the drivers hands. Yep, sure enough he saw dropped cell phones in the footwell of the driver whom were in their dazed state trying to reach down and grab the evidence. Until it is someones own family killed by a texting drivers, most cell addicted people in cars still will talk, text and die or kill. Robert
ReplyDeleteOh I forgot to add, because as we know the police have quotas, perhaps some cops are given these types of tickets hoping they will stick. If they wanted to give tickets easily just get on their police bikes so they can look down on drivers as they come beside them on Maisonneuve etc, and get them for drivin while texting etc. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Robert
ReplyDelete