Drivers face fine and points if they use phone at drive-thru

[Dis86]

You have a very low opinion of our justice system. Six points and £200 (mainly the six points I'd say) will be a significant deterrent to drivers using their phones.

I do indeed. As evident by an individual who killed two people and then fled the scene receiving only a year inside. That and the recent interactions I've had with a number of Northumbria's finest (detailed one earlier).

 

[Resident]

so I am breaking the law by sitting on my drive picking podcast on my phone before driving off?

I doubt it.

Unless your drive happens to be a route that the public have access and use of on a regular basis. Even then I suspect a police officer would have a hard time getting it into court, but the moment your wheels touch say the public footpath to cross it and reach the road, or the road itself you'd definitely have committed an offence.

IIRC the distinction is that you don't invite the public onto your driveway and give them unfettered access to it (the public have no expectation to be able to use your drive), the only people who'd be expected to be on your drive would be invited or deliveries etc.
Unlike say a shop's car park, or the drive through at McDonalds.

There is a lot of case law about this, ranging from things like private roads to communal parking/housing estates, to car parks, to farmers fields with a public event going on in them.

A drive through would be either classed as a "private road" that the public have access to, or part of the retailers car park, both of which are places where the Road Traffic Act and related laws have been deemed to apply.

@Werewolf has it correct. Your drive is private with no public access. Which is why you can sit an untaxed/uninsured vehicle on it and not be bothered by plod.

 

[Em3bbs]

How long before one of those bell end anti-car cyclists with a helmet camera sits outside a McDonald's filming everyone paying with their phones before uploading the footage to Police websites.

 

[TheVoice]

The issue is, as nasher and a few others have said there is that jobsworth police officer who will charge someone.

When you're agreeing with Nasher you know you're off to a bad start.

 

[Dis86]

When you're agreeing with Nasher you know you're off to a bad start.

Broken clock and all that...

 

[Surveyor]

Lol what?

Let me try and explain in your language.

Blehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh blehhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Forgive me if my pronunciation isn't great but my sheep isn't great.

Apologies if my post hit too close to home.