'Stay off phones': Woman claims she was fined over passenger's simple mistake
A woman says she was slapped with an unexpected hefty fine after police spotted her driving while a front-seat passenger used FaceTime.
Sheree, from Sydney, claims she copped a $337 fine after being caught out in Catherine Field, 43 kilometres southwest of the city, on June 2.
In a fiery post to Facebook, she warned others not to let their passengers use their phones for video-calling while in the front seat.
“Tell your passengers to stay off their phones while you are driving, I got fined because my passenger was on FaceTime,” she wrote.
“Honestly didn’t know that was a thing.”
She was not alone in her surprise, with 11,000 people sharing her post and more than 1300 social media users expressing their shock in the comments at the time of publication.
The fine indicated Sheree was being penalised for the offence: “Drive vehicle with TV/VDU image likely to distract another driver.”
She was lucky to escape being penalised for similar offence, “Drive vehicle with TV/VDU image visible to driver”, which also carried three demerit points.
Both offences are listed under NSW General Driving Offences on the Roads and Maritime Services website.
Many took to the comments to bash the rule, slamming it as a “joke”.
“This country has lost the plot,” a social media user wrote.
“They haven’t advertised this much. As if we need something else to control while we’re driving,” another Facebook user said.
Someone else argued in favour of the police, suggesting it was no different to having a screen playing a movie in the front seat.
“Well you’re not allow to watch a DVD screen in the front while the cars moving, same same,” they wrote.
Last month a man driving on the Pacific Highway at Heatherbrae, in the Hunter Region, was fined $377 because his passenger was using a laptop in the front seat.
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