All the talk about the hazards of using a cell phone while driving a car must have passed straight over the head of Brit David Secker. Perhaps he simply got confused about the idea of using a cell phone hands-free. Whatever the case, the 34-year-old was caught by police using not one, but two mobile devices while driving along at 70mph.
A BBC report on Monday said that Secker was seen “talking on one phone while holding the other as if texting.” Police said that it didn’t look as if he had any hands on the steering wheel.
Perhaps most remarkable of all, when police officers pulled him over, Secker made them wait for him to finish his phone conversation.
Some press reports had suggested he’d been steering the car with his knees, though this was denied by Secker. Simon Nicholls, defending Secker, claimed he’d been reading a phone number off of the second cell phone, with one hand on the wheel.
Prosecutor Denis King said that Secker was seen holding a cell phone to his right ear and “as he moved closer, the officer saw he was holding another phone in his other hand as though he was texting.”
A court in Norwich, a city about 100 miles north-east of London, handed Secker a fine and a 12-month driving ban for his offense. Outside the court, Mr. Nicholls told reporters, “He accepts he made a mistake and will learn from it.”
UK law strictly prohibits the use of mobile devices while driving, though use of hands-free equipment is allowed.
An online survey conducted in the US earlier this year revealed that a worrying 19 percent of respondents use the Internet while driving.
