Calif. court: Motorist can’t use hand-held map

Associated Press ^ | Apr 8, 2013 5:57 PM EDT | Paul Elias

[Olog-hai]

Steven Spriggs was stopped in a traffic jam near downtown Fresno and thought nothing of whipping out his iPhone 4 and clicking on the map feature to see if there was an alternate route around the construction mess.

He was startled when he looked up and saw a California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer ordering him to pull over. He showed the officer that he was looking at a map and not texting or talking.

“Pull over,” Spriggs recalled the officer as saying. “It’s in your hand.”

A little more than a year later, Spriggs is at the heart of a novel court case that has technology blogs and social media sites buzzing about the $160 ticket plus court costs he was ordered to pay for “distracted driving.” …

[BobL]

Good. Anyone knows that a person can pull up a map app...on a second’s notice. It is COMPLETELY different than having a REAL map with him.

Let him fry...

[2ndDivisionVet]

Keep digging, Texas loves this kind of nonsense.

[jonrick46]

I see looking at your instrument panel readings or making adjustments to your radio system just as distracting. What is one more piece of information than something that tells where you are?

[Misterioso]

I bet you hear quite a few honks, these days.

[longtermmemmory]

technology has already passed the law.

you have to type names. you can talk text without typing.

this officer has too much time on his hands.

[NoCmpromiz]

How do you know that the light has turned green?
The car behind me honks, in a New York second.

In New York City you can experience the fastest event known to man, so fast that it is nearly immeasurable. That would be the amount of time that passes between the light turning green and the car behind you honking. (Even though this time span under normal conditions in close to immeasurable, it has been documented that it is much shorter if the vehicle behind you is painted yellow...)

[bubbacluck]

Well, like I said, I only do it at red lights that I know are a long red. I do look up from my phone, am aware of my surroundings and I do have a sense of when the traffic patterns change. I have never had a legitimate honk behind me because I was so enraptured with my electronic device.

[Cyman]

I am shocked they didn't rule the driver had no standing to appeal. That appears to be the judicial wussy-out recently in vogue.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Any phone call can be very distracting. A hand-held cell phone call is very distracting, while driving. Glancing at your instrument panel, or adjusting the radio are (usually) less distracting. They don’t require much of your attention.

I find that my window-mounted GPS isn’t distracting, when it’s in voice mode. Sometimes, it removes distractions — e.g. you don’t need to look at every street sign, or building address, when you’re traveling to an unfamiliar destination. You can focus on road and traffic conditions, rather than navigating.

[piytar]

California is collapsing. Tickets are all about revenue, nothing else. So of course the ticket was upheld - plus “costs.”

[editor-surveyor]

Our courts are completely insane!

[latina4dubya]

Until then, Hamlin wrote, courts are compelled to deem illegal nearly all uses of hand-held phone by motorists.

nearly all uses? well then, which uses are deemed legal?

[jonrick46]

Your point about the levels of distraction is very true. Being able to deal with things that distract are part of the skill of being a good driver. I think laws can go too far trying to regulate distractions. I have noticed that once they start the regulations, they go into the ridiculous. And one careless driver will cause needless regulations that will affect everyone else.

[mylife]

More stupid nannyism.

[roadcat]

Ironic that cops use all kinds of devices while they drive.

There are lots of videos of cops crashing while distracted using their laptop computers in police vehicles. Departments are paying out lots of money to settle crashes. The dashcam videos show the cops running red lights, slamming into the rear of motorcycles and vehicles stopped at intersections, etc. Cops get a pass because these devices aren't wireless phones.

[Vendome]

Really???

So, how do you imagine cops make it through an 8 hour shift without subjecting themselves to the same offense you want to accuse this poor plick of violating???

You ain’t a bad poster, so we can start there, hopefully.

I just don’t like the premise of the offense...

[Ronin]

Oh it is, it’s just that THEIR view of common sense is that writing tickets is great for state revenue and since people have a knee-jerk reaction to cellphones and drivers, they’ll never miss the opportunity to whip out the pad if they can pin anything on you.

[nvscanman]

It’s no more distracting than using a microphone
for a 2 way radio or an in car data terminal....both
of which are in constant use by the elite super human
macho badgemonkeys who are immune to the laws that the
rest of us mere mundanes must obey. Distracted driving
is distracted driving....either the law applies to
EVERYONE or it is not a law but a petty beaurocratic
regulation imposed by apparatchiks and their hired thugs...
all of whom are deserving of a good neck stretching.

[Spartan302]

All the more reasons to research into privacy windows that can change the tint or even to be reflective for a short period of time.

Or they just show an image of you like a video, while behind the glass you are doing something else.

[Cronos]

I agree with you olog — this is a stupid move by the cops. But I believe the law would be so ambiguously worded that anyone sitting in the driving seat with the engine on could be considered a “driver of a moving car”