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  1. #1
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    Sep 2014
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    Cool Cell Phone While Driving Ticket - How to Fight It

    My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: California.

    My wife recently got a ticket for using her cell phone while driving. While she did have her cell phone in hand and was looking at her business calendar she did not use it for talking. She even showed the officer that there was no phone conversation going on when he pulled her over but he still gave her the ticket. Can I fight this if she was not using her cell phone to make a call?

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Cell Phone While Driving Ticket - How to Fight It

    Well, YOU can't fight anything at all. The issue is what your wife can fight.

    Are you seriously going to try to tell me that looking at her business calendar on her cell phone while driving isn't just as much a distraction, if not more so, than talking on her cell phone? After all, if her eyes are on the business calendar then they're not on the road. She can still watch the road while talking.

  3. #3
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    Mar 2013
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    Default Re: Cell Phone While Driving Ticket - How to Fight It

    Quote Quoting techsol
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    My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: California.

    My wife recently got a ticket for using her cell phone while driving. While she did have her cell phone in hand and was looking at her business calendar she did not use it for talking. She even showed the officer that there was no phone conversation going on when he pulled her over but he still gave her the ticket. Can I fight this if she was not using her cell phone to make a call?
    I would think that you would have looked up the statute and read it by now.

    The first part of the statute:

    V C Section 23123 Hand Held Wireless Telephone Prohibited Use
    23123. (a) A person shall not drive a motor vehicle while using a wireless telephone unless that telephone is specifically designed and configured to allow hands-free listening and talking, and is used in that manner while driving.


    The citation is for USING the phone, not talking on it.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Cell Phone While Driving Ticket - How to Fight It

    Quote Quoting cbg
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    Well, YOU can't fight anything at all. The issue is what your wife can fight.

    Are you seriously going to try to tell me that looking at her business calendar on her cell phone while driving isn't just as much a distraction, if not more so, than talking on her cell phone? After all, if her eyes are on the business calendar then they're not on the road. She can still watch the road while talking.
    This would be a really good point if only there were a law in California about it.

  5. #5
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    Default Re: Cell Phone While Driving Ticket - How to Fight It

    Please read AJ's reply and show me where it specifies talking in the statute.

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Cell Phone While Driving Ticket - How to Fight It

    Quote Quoting adjusterjack
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    I would think that you would have looked up the statute and read it by now.

    The first part of the statute:

    V C Section 23123 Hand Held Wireless Telephone Prohibited Use
    23123. (a) A person shall not drive a motor vehicle while using a wireless telephone unless that telephone is specifically designed and configured to allow hands-free listening and talking, and is used in that manner while driving.


    The citation is for USING the phone, not talking on it.
    So the first mistake is not having the phone properly configured for hands free operation and the second mistake is telling the officer she was not making a phone call.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Quoting cbg
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    Please read AJ's reply and show me where it specifies talking in the statute.
    Well let's see...one part of the statute refers to talking and listening (i.e. making a phone call) and the last part refers to using the phone in that manner. In other words, cell phones can't be used for anything but hands free listening and talking. This is true regardless of the fact that there is no evidence that holding a cell phone and making a call results in any greater distraction than making a hands free call. The point is not that the law makes sense, just that it's the law.

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Cell Phone While Driving Ticket - How to Fight It

    Phones these days have many more uses than talking.

    It says you cannot USE a wireless telephone while driving unless both of the following are true:

    1.) The phone is configured for hands free operation
    2.) The phone is being used in the hands-free mode

    We don't know if #1 is true but we do know that #2 is not free, since the only legal usage under the statute is talking with the phone in the hands-free mode and that is not what the poster's wife was doing.

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