OHTA.ca

Hi,

I recieved a ticket on Tuesday while I was in the drive thru at Mcdonalds. The officer said he was "following me" when I was on the road saying I was looking down, which he assumed was me using my cell phone, which was not the case. When I was waiting behind the car in front of me to finish ordering, I was parked and sent one text and put my phone in the cup holder. Brifely after that, the officer knocked on my window and said what I had previously mentioned. He asked for my license and regestration, and told me after I was done to meet him around. Long story short, he gave me a $155 fine assuring me that it would not effect my license or insurance (is that true?). In the heat of the moment I did not look to see how long I had until I had to make a decision and I asked and he said one month, but on the ticket it said I only had 15 days. He also wrote the ticket on the street in which he claimed to have seen me "look down" and not the drive thru where he did talk to me. My question is that can he even give me a ticket in the drive thru even if I did send a text while parked behind the other vehicle? As it is considered private property and there would be no authority for the ticket. If I get my phone bill to show when I sent that one text out in the drive thru and when if I go to Mcdonalds to see if they will give me a copy of the exact time I was in the drive thru then will I have no problem on beating this ticket?

Thank you,

Brittany

tickets (P.O.N.) can be issued anywhere, he can follow you to your house (private property) and hand you the ticket/summons upto six-months from Tuesday for contravening s78.1

but the actual offense of holding the hand-held device, has to be on a public road not in a McDonalds Drive Thru

unfortunately you don't necessarily have to use your phone: send text, make a call.. the act of holding/pressing/touching the phone is enough for the conviction whilst on a public road (ex. powering on to check: time, missed calls, recent texts, emails)

you will have to file the ticket with your intent to go to trial and challenge the officer's evidence

once you receive your notice of trial in the mail, you can request for disclosure and prepare your defense

there are no demerit points associated with this, but it could affect your insurance rates depending on your insurer's policy; some like State Farm will bump you 10-15% over three years for even one ticket; if you accumulate three minor tickets some insurers will cancel your policy