Kesgrave driver caught watching YouTube on phone
- Published
The driver was seen watching music videos on his phone
A driver was pulled over by police after he was spotted watching YouTube videos on his mobile phone.
The music fan was stopped in Bell Lane, Kesgrave, near Ipswich, by Suffolk traffic officers on Monday night.
Police had followed him along Main Road and said he was watching films on his phone which was attached to the car windscreen.
He was reported for "using a motor vehicle when television receiving apparatus was visible to the driver".
Suffolk Police said he told officers he thought it was OK to use YouTube to listen to music.
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
PC Jonny Firman, from the roads and armed policing team, said: "A video playing upon a mobile phone, in the view of the driver, could take away their concentration on actually driving the motor vehicle and it would only take a momentary lapse in concentration for a collision to occur."
Although officers were not able to say what the offender had been watching, they later clarified the law on watching videos or films while driving a vehicle, quoting from section 109 of the government Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986, external.
Watching television while driving: The rules
No person shall drive, or cause or permit to be driven, a motor vehicle on a road, if the driver is in such a position as to be able to see, whether directly or by reflection, a television receiving apparatus or other cinematographic apparatus used to display anything other than information -
about the state of the vehicle or its equipment;
about the location of the vehicle and the road on which it is located;
to assist the driver to see the road adjacent to the vehicle; or
to assist the driver to reach his destination.
In this regulation "television receiving apparatus" means any cathode ray tube carried on a vehicle and on which there can be displayed an image derived from a television broadcast, a recording or a camera or computer.