Distracted Driving Ticket
Distracted driving simply means doing or looking at something else other than focusing on the road and holding onto your steering wheel. It is that simple. Dissecting it further, it means it is an offense to be texting, holding a phone, or the coffee cup, eating, changing a playlist or the radio, looking at or typing a destination into your GPS while your car is on the road.
The purpose is to keep your safety and that of the other drivers sharing the road with you in mind at all times, failure to which, you would be charged for causing your own distraction and causing your attention to be impaired, putting you and others in danger. This means even if you are at the traffic light waiting for your turn, you cannot do any other thing other than enjoying the cinematic and the beautiful view of the red light as you wait for the green to come to the stage to grab you out of that misery. But you must also remember that until you are off the road, your full attention is required at all times.
Summary: while on the road and at the wheel, a distracted driving can be,
1. Holding a cellphone
2. Putting a destination information into a GPS
3. Holding a coffee mug while driving
4. Hands on the playlist or radio button
5. Eating or drinking
6. Fixing a bluetooth while at the wheel
7. Dialing a Number
8. Scrolling through numbers while at the wheel
In fact this gives so much room to a police officer to give you a ticket for almost anything you do while at the steering while, except focusing on the road and both hands on the wheel. This is indeed a difficult task and responsibility imposed on drivers. This is also the reasons why it is beyond a person without legal background to fight such tickets alone when there is such room for a police officer to maneuver. It is our strong recommendation that you seek legal assistance and if possible effective legal representation to fight for you. Because upon conviction, there are penalties that would also cause unexpected outcomes that would put your license in a serious danger of suspension due to demerit point accumulation, high insurance premiums and up to a thousand dollars fine. However, there is no one blanket penalty. They differ according to the type of licence one holds.
Penalties for A to G license holders
For A, B, B, C, D, E, F and G license holders, conviction of a distracted driving offense means:
- Up to $1,000.00 fine if convicted
- Settlement at court without a hearing attracts a fine of $490.00, including court fees and a victim surcharge
- Accumulation of three demerit points
Novice Drivers
No demerit points for new or Novice drivers such as G1, G2, M1 and M2 license holders when convicted of distracted driving, except the rest of the fines imposed on A, B, C, D, E, F and G drivers. However, aside the demerit point that novice drivers do not accumulate, unlike their A, B, C, D, E, F, G license holders, such drivers also face harsh penalties upon convictions. For instance for:
- a first time offender, a 30-day suspension of license upon the first conviction;
- Second conviction also attracts a 90-day suspension of license and
- fine of up to $1,000.00 if loses the case in court upon summons
- a third conviction of distracted driving also leads to cancellation of licence and removal from the Graduated Licensing System (GLS) until re-entry and completion of the GLS program
The Hidden Effects upon conviction
- Upon conviction, aside the financial charges that it imposes, there is the high chances of high insurance premiums
- Difficulty in getting insurance, as it is considered the conduct and the conviction raise your risk level
Recommendation
As we have repeated elsewhere, it is a serious uncalculated risk to go to the court alone without the representation of a competent legal professional.We strongly advice that if you are charged with distracted driving, you seek effective legal representation that would vigorously fight on your behalf. You are assured of that effective representation if you choose us to fight your ticket for you. We have vast array of expertise and ways to ensure your interest is well protected. Seeking Oppong Wiafe legal representation is the sure way of having the effective representation you need in such serious charges that have equally serious implications on your driving privileges.
