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Man Caught Wearing Earbuds With a Dead Phone Found Guilty of Distracted Driving (www.cbc.ca)
Freshly Exhumed writes: RCMP officers spotted a man driving with earbuds plugged into his iPhone. The phone was not in his hands nor on his lap, was not playing music or video, and the driver was not using it to talk to someone or navigate. The battery was, in fact, completely dead. Nonetheless, a judge has ruled that "by plugging the earbud wire into the iPhone, the defendant had enlarged the device, such that it included not only the iPhone (proper) but also attached speaker or earbuds," he wrote. "Since the earbuds were part of the electronic device and since the earbuds were in the defendant's ears, it necessarily follows that the defendant was holding the device (or part of the device) in a position in which it could be used, i.e. his ears." On the question of the battery, the judge said he relied on a 2015 precedent set in a Canadian provincial court, which says that holding an electronic device in a position where it could be used constitutes an offense, even if it is temporarily not working.
Pretty sure in many jurisdiction, simply wearing ear plugs is against the law while operating a motor vehicle on the public roads, and by logical extension, shoving ear buds in your ears reduces your ability to hear what is going on around you.
That the ear buds had a wire, that the wire was plugged into a phone and that the phone had no charge are nothing more than interesting facts. For example, ear plugs in both ears while driving a motor vehicle or riding a bicycle is against the law.
Ken
In many jurisdictions, wearing headsets while driving is illegal (and has been for many years, even before cell phones).
The RCMP Reminds Canadians That You Can Be Fined For Wearing Earphones While Driving
AAA Driving Laws: Headsets
His iPhone was in the centre cubby hole on his dashboard, with the earbuds plugged in. The battery was dead.
I wonder if the judge thinks this defense is bullshit. i.e. Why are 2 earbuds in his ears, while driving in the first place? If the phone was dead when he got into the car, why did he put the phone in the centre cubby, but keep both earphones in his ears?
Maybe the judge was thinking, "Do we let distracted drivers use the dead battery defense? Or do we counter bullshit defense with bullshit legal reasoning?" Slippery slopes both ways.
The TFA perhaps states the best compromise for the moment:
B.C. RCMP say 1 earbud is fine, but wearing 2 can land you a $368 fine.
This isn't bad, especially since wearing 2 earbuds can lower the volume of what you can hear outside of the car, even without audio playing.
No, section 7 of the British Columbia Motorvehicle Act prohibits the use of wearing both headphones. They can only be worn in one ear, and only used for hands-free communications.
I'm not sure why the judge went through the legal gymnastics either.
...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...