by Sarah Leamon on January 9th, 2021 at 4:02 PM 1 of 2 2 of 2
One of the first decisions to come out of the B.C. Supreme Court this year has to do with the hot-topic issue of distracted driving. This week, the case of R. v. Bleau further defined the parameters of what exactly constitutes distracted driving and just as importantly what doesn’t.
The facts of the case involved a man, appealing a decision from a lower court wherein he had been convicted of using an electronic device while driving.
While not a criminal offence, tickets under section 214.2 of the
Motor Vehicle Act can carry some serious consequences for those who receive them.
Global News, a Campbell River resident, Ryan Bleu, was listening to an episode of
The Joe Rogan Experience while driving when a officer flagged him for distracted driving, issuing him a ticket for the offence.
The Vancouver Island man was merely listening to a podcast while he drove in B.C., with his phone in his truck’s cup holder, connected via Bluetooth to the speaker system a fact that the police officer at the scene didn’t concur with.
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Bleu opened a dispute against the ticket, backing it up with some dashcam footage and phone records in the provincial court. The provincial court rejected his argument, so he appealed the decision in B.C. Supreme Court where his evidence bore fruit and the ticket was waived.