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.

Comments

Rick And Morty on A=A

[JBMcB]

"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.

Re: Rick And Morty on A=A

[Obfuscant]

Fun fact: deaf people can drive in Virginia. All other states that I know of, too. Punishing people for not having a capability that is OPTIONAL is simply wrong.

If the idiot judge wanted to convict someone of driving while impaired, he could have done that. "Distracted" is patent nonsense.

Re:This judge needs to be barred!

[kenh]

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.

Headsets while driving may be illegal

[byteCoder]

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