Can cell phone be hand held if driver is stopped by side of road?

[MotivatedMom]

First off, I loathe talking on the cell phone while driving -- it's very distracting, even though I use a bluetooth device. Fortunately I rarely need to talk while driving-- only my immediate family and my daughter's school have my cell number.

I wear the bluetooth if I happen to be driving at a time when I think I might get a call (e.g. my daughter will call if she missed the school bus home and needs to be picked up; my husband calls briefly during his lunch break.) At other times, I don't wear the bluetooth-- it is uncomfortable and interferes with the earpiece of my sunglasses/tends to fall off.

So if the cell phone should ring when I am not wearing the bluetooth, and I decide to pull over to answer it, is it sufficient to be idling by the side of the road or must the engine actually be turned off while using a hand held phone, to be in compliance with the law? I am in CT.

The reason I'm wondering this is that I heard of a situation where a person in CA was told by an officer that her car engine needed to be turned off to use the phone.

Can anyone clarify the law?
Thanks in advance.

[HotSoup]

Don't know about CT but if you were pulled over on the side of the road here in Arizona and I pulled up behind you the most I'd do is check to see if everything was ok and you didn't need any assistance...if you didn't I'd tell you to have a nice day and be on my way....now if you were on the side of the road and it was unsafe I'd probably ask you to move to a safer location...otherwise that's about it

[JLee]

Don't know about CT but if you were pulled over on the side of the road here in Arizona and I pulled up behind you the most I'd do is check to see if everything was ok and you didn't need any assistance...if you didn't I'd tell you to have a nice day and be on my way....now if you were on the side of the road and it was unsafe I'd probably ask you to move to a safer location...otherwise that's about it

Same in NH - it happens fairly often. Again, I can't speak for CT either.

[SgtCHP]

This is from a CT site: http://www.ct.gov/dmv/lib/dmv/20/29/cellphon.pdf

Hand-held cell phones or mobile electronic devices
may not be used while operating a motor vehicle in
Connecticut.

• Drivers 18 years of age and older need hands-free
accessories to legally use cell phones or mobile
electronic devices while operating a motor vehicle.

• New drivers who are 16 or 17 years of age are
restricted from using any type of cell phone or
mobile electronic device while driving, even with
hands-free accessories. Effective August 1, 2008,
a conviction of violating this law will result in at
least a 30-day suspension of your driver license
and could require you to attend an operator retraining
class if you have other violations.
The exceptions to this law include:

• A cell phone or mobile electronic device may be
used, by a driver of any age, in an emergency
situation, when contacting an emergency response
operator, a hospital, physician’s office, health
clinic, ambulance company or fire or police de -
partment.

• Drivers who are 18 years of age and older who are
peace officers, firefighters or ambulance drivers
may use hand-held cell phones and electronic
devices while performing their official duties.

The act defines a ‘mobile electronic device’ as any
hand-held or other portable electronic equipment
capable of providing data communication between
two or more people. Included are devices for text
messaging or paging, personal digital assistants,
laptop computers, equipment capable of playing video
games or digital video disks, or equipment on which
digital photographs are taken or transmitted. A
mobile electronic device does not include audio equipment
or any equipment installed in the vehicle to provide navigation,
emergency, or other assistance to the driver or video entertainment to passengers in the vehicle’s rear seats.

By the above, if you are stopped and the engine is still running, you may not use your cell phone unless you are using a hands free device. Legally parked, there should be no issue.

[SleepyCop]

Once again the Traffic God has spoken...

[MotivatedMom]

• Drivers 18 years of age and older need hands-free
accessories to legally use cell phones or mobile
electronic devices while operating a motor vehicle.

Thank you-- and that is interesting, because I would have thought that "while operating a motor vehicle" meant that the vehicle was moving. Somehow I would have thought being stopped meant it wasn't being operated. But I understand now.

[SleepyCop]

• Drivers 18 years of age and older need hands-free
accessories to legally use cell phones or mobile
electronic devices while operating a motor vehicle.

Thank you-- and that is interesting, because I would have thought that "while operating a motor vehicle" meant that the vehicle was moving. Somehow I would have thought being stopped meant it wasn't being operated. But I understand now.

If the engine is running you're still operating it...

[MotivatedMom]

That makes sense.

My husband (who is home today) was surprised when I told him about needing to turn the engine off to use the handheld. I think a lot of people don't realize this.

[PhilipCal]

No violation in Alabama. In fact, you're to be commended for pulling over. I mean that. Wish more folks would.

[R.A.B.]

As long as you are not driving the vehicle down the road and are safely off of the roadway you are good to go here.

[MotivatedMom]

In spite of the law, there are still a lot of people using handheld phones while driving here in CT. I see them every day. I am very leery of them-- they make careless mistakes. I've had a few near misses due to their inattention. They don't even seem to notice they've nearly caused an accident.

However I think -- and I've read that studies have borne this out-- the real hazard is having a phone conversation while driving, whether handheld or not. I've read that it is about the same as driving while intoxicated.

It's not just driving-- multitasking in general is not nearly as efficient as people think. Recently I read that a study has shown that when people multitask, they do worse at each of the tasks they are doing concurrently.

This is one reason I don't want more people to have my cell number. I have to keep the phone on when I'm out on errands, in case the school needs to call me, but I really don't want to be taking calls if I don't have to. Life is busy enough!