Slashdot Mirror
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.
"If you go to where there's a bunch of ice cream and then you don't come back, you haven't actually gotten ice cream, you've just gone where ice cream is.."
I guess watching TV that isn't turned on is still watching TV, then.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
No, but if you shot at someone and hit a cell phone in that person's backpack, you would be guilty of murder. By placing the backpack on that person, someone has extended that person to include the backpack and its contents. So by killing the cell phone, you have killed the person.
Also, by extension, had he held the cell phone in his hand, it would have become an extension of himself, and thus would no longer be a cell phone, and he would have been found not guilty.
Q.E.D.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
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
That this clearly delusional ruling didn't come from an American judge, it came from one in Canada.
In America, less legal gymnastics would be required to convict the driver - for example, in California it is illegal to have ear buds in both ears while driving. Period. No need to dig up obscure precedents, infer anything, the law is crystal clear.
Apparently in Canada it is legal to wear earbuds in both ears while driving, good to know.
Ken
That particular judge has their own interpretation of "holding". That's what judges do: interpret the law. That doesn't mean their interpretation is common or typical. Some rulings will deviate from how an average person or judge would interpret it. I would hope the ruling would be vetted by at least one other judge such that a really odd opinion would get a second chance.
Table-ized A.I.
Ok, but turn the radio all the way up and it's legal?
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.
Ok, but turn the radio all the way up and it's legal?
More important, be deaf and it is legal. How can not being able to hear be a crime if not being able to hear is optional to get a driver's license?
Sorry, my radio only goes up to 11
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
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...
Whenever I converse with Canadians I make it a point to work in calling them Americans just to hear them indignantly tell me they aren't Americans.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
What is the difference between having headphones in which nothing is playing, and earmuffs, or a hat that covers your ears?
In most modern cars you aren't hearing the outside really well unless the windows are opened, absurd that headphones with nothing playing are considered a problem.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Judge might have done him, and taxpayers, a favor by not looking into phone records to determine if the dude was lying.
Why would convicting someone of something without bothering to look into the facts be doing him a favor?
TFS makes a statement of fact, not a guess. The battery was dead. Not "he claimed the battery was dead."
That's why the law is written as it is.
The law is written the way it is to deal with the distraction of operation a cell phone while driving. He wasn't operating a cell phone while driving, therefore he cannot be guilty of the crime he was convicted of. The judge is a goofball for trying to claim that having earbuds in your ears is somehow operating or holding a phone.
The deaf are very obviously not being distracted by anything they hear.
If having earbud in, even if the phone is dead, constitutes distracted driving, then by having the phone in the car to begin with, you'd be guilty. In fact if this logic follows then by having any item in the car, that's not solely for the purpose of driving that car, you're breaking the law.
Working or not earbuds block sound thus limiting the driver's ability to perceive his environment which makes it dangerous driving.
I once stayed at a B&B in Ireland. The proprietress said something to the effect of "oh, you're Americans" to which I politely replied "Canadians, actually." She then said "it's really the same thing" to which I replied "quite, just like you're English."
Obviously Canada. And it's a fine of $386 Canadian or ~ $290 US. No jail.
Authorities everywhere really love to stick it to people whenever they can remotely justify it. We should all get together and start voting against those sorts of authorities.
Simple, a deaf person driving a car knows of their disability and accounts for it by being extra vigilant in checking mirrors, looking around while driving. A hearing person, rocking out to some righteous tunes, doesn't realize they can't hear what's going on around them and change their driving behavior.
Ken
Using a phone hands free is legal in BC. You do have to put the earbud in before driving to be legal and the earbud can't be used for music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
That's how the law is written. Perhaps the Legislature needs to revisit the law.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
How do motorcyclists in North America prevent hearing damage if they are not allowed to wear earplugs? Wind noise at highway speeds can reach 110+ dB (A) on a bike without wind screen.
https://m.hear-it.org/motorcyc...
(Although the a-holes that modify the tailpipes to make them louder deserve to end up deaf.)
Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
Which is baloney. Some luxury cars are so well insulated you can't hear a damn thing outside -- not even road noise from your own tires. Car stereos with subwoofers are perfectly legal, even when they are loud enough to blow out windows. Hell, the windows on some cars are so small you can't see over the dash, let alone out the read quarter panel.
I used to drive forklifts for a living, and I wore earplugs to work every day. My boss threatened to suspend me if I didn't take them off, since he claimed it was a safety hazard. The irony is that he was talking to me the whole time on a noisy work floor while I was wearing my earplugs, and I clearly heard every word he said, and I told him I could hear machines honking their horns on the other side of the warehouse. In the end I won out and was allowed to do my damn job, but I still couldn't convince him that ear plugs only take the edge off, and they don't silence noise completely. Hurrah for liability paranoia.
Canadian here. Well, British born but lived in Canada for the past ~20 years. I can attest that the difference between Americans and Canadians is paper thin. Despite popular opinion, Canadians aren't "nicer" than Americans, I've met plenty of Americans who are polite, gracious, and well educated. And I've met plenty of Canadians who are not any of those.
The problem is with statements like "Canadians are ". A Canadian might be nice, but I can assure you, in a group of 100 random Canadians, you're gonna find a high percentage of people who are most definitely not nice. Now replace 'Canadian' with some other nationality and the same'll be held true.
Canadians love to look down on Americans and portray them all to be racists or uneducated, or gun-toting maniacs but we have our fair share up here
I can't count how many times a car has pulled up to me at a red light and their music is blaring so loudly that my car is vibrating. If I can clearly hear their music through their car, the gap between our cars, and through my car, then it must be extremely loud inside their car. To the point that I doubt that they can hear any road noises. If anything should be illegal, that should be.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.