Eating and Driving Warning !!

Thought a little warning might come in handy ...

A colleague at work has just received a fine for "Eating whilst driving" (Essen während dem Fahren)!!

This amounts to :-

Busse 350.00

Urteils-Gebühr 100.00

Kosten-Übernahme PD 200.00

Total 650.00

This was for eating a croissant whilst driving on the way to work in the morning. Whilst this may well be a legitimate offence I wonder just how many people grab a snack along the way to or from work without realising the potential consequences. If the police are short of funds for Christmas I guess they could just park outside a Mac-D and let the money just roll in.

oh my god! no way! do you get 650.00 CHF just by eating while driving? that's way too much!

Can you please tell me if that applies to the whole Switzerland or just some cantons?

Thanks, a normal morning habit for me. What's the Swiss rule (there must be one) with Mobiles whilst driving nobody seems to care / take notice?

Oh, if you're caught driving while holding your cellphone, you get a warning or a fine. (I know, some people still persist in it.)

This happened to a friend: She told the officer she answered her phone just to tell her husband she was driving and hung up.

But the police chap checked her phone for the last call and said, "You took seven minutes to do that?!"

She was fined (can't remember how much - something like CHF120) and also told her the backlights are faulty but they'd let her off this time if she'd promise to immediately go get it repaired. She promised like a good resident.

Reminds me of a tale a few years ago in the UK. A girl was fined by the police because she was drinking from a bottle whilst at the wheel. She was at a red light!

Seriously though, drinking from a bottle, talking on the phone, applying make up (I've seen it many times) or eating a sandwich whilst driving means that you are not concentrating on the road 100%.

I have often wondered when in the UK they will ban smoking while driving, a dropped fag on your lap while doing 70+ down the motorway doesn't bear thinking about. Probably too much of a hot potato, or fag end, that one.

Recently the bus I was on could not turn at a T junction because a lady in her car had the whole front end past the white line, the line where she was supposed to stop and give way. This lady was on the mobile and had the audacity to shout at the bus driver who had asked her kindly to reverse back. She stayed on the mobile all the time while arguing. What is sad is that she had two kids in the back seat.

Moral of the story? If you have a death wish then please feel free to slam your car against a derelict wall or something but please be responsible while driving in public areas. I see so many people using their mobile phones while driving. I have almost been hit twice by such idiots. Each time they looked at me as if I was the one being careless. Lifting my middle finger each time did the trick.

I'm always up to this, but I only eat when it's safe to do so, I never use the mobile either.

I heard they were clamping down on smokers in the UK but I wish the feckers would clamp down on the idiots on phones they are much more dangerous organising a business meeting on the M25, whilst everyone swerves to avoid them.

Thanks for the heads up T!

What beats me is that only a limited number of offences are fixed penalties, the rest go through the court system and "mature" along the way. And hence some petty offences incur greater fines than dangerous ones.

For example, if you run a red light, it is a penalty of 240 chf. If you turn left over an unbroken line over a driveway, even if nothing is coming, it can cost you 400chf and upwards..

Something like eating whilst driving should come under a fixed penalty, unless a collision occurred or was imment.

I can't find the link now, but there was a story in the Blick about a year or two ago which told the story of a driver who was eating pizza whilst driving. He dropped a piece and leaned over to pick it up which caused him to momentarily lose control of the car. Result? One dead bystander.

I thought there was also a law passed in Switzerland that makes it illegal to have a navagation system attached to your windshield. So Tom Toms etc. can no longer be attached to that "middle dash" area of your car. It apparently hinders your vision. . . okay I can see that, but it is even worse if you are trying to look at a navigation system that is any lower than your dash. Has gotten Stephanwolf and myself into some trouble

I'll add to that speculation by mentioning that I saw in the newspaper recently that it's only illegal if it blocks your vision more than x metres ahead (where x is something like 10). If it's low down on the windscreen, which it should be anyway, then it's not a problem.

What *is* forbidden with nav systems in Switzerland is using them with the speed trap proximity warning turned on. Keeping to the speed limit is the best alternative.

http://www.news.ch/Pizza+essender+To...464/detail.htm

He had also been drinking. The head on collision cost the life of the innocent driver and her passenger was severely injured.

Surely you could be fined for activities like eating etc. in most countries, not just Switzerland, because they would be generally regarded as 'driving without due care and attention'.

hmmm... seems rather excessive for just eating a croissant. Are you sure that "eating while driving" was the only offense?

I find it hard to believe that generally eating whilst driving is actually an offence. Surely it depends on how you go about it. Simply holding a croissant in one hand and taking the occasional bite doesn't prevent you concentrating on the road. Cleaning up the resulting crumbs on the floor would of course be regarded as dangerous. But simply eating a croissant is no more distracting than grabbing a chewing gum or lighting a cigarette. Surely you can't be fined, providing you don't take your eyes off the road for more than a split second.

On the other hand: http://www.digitaljournal.com/articl...rill_and_Drive

It's a 100 fr. fine here in Kt. Zug. My other half was fined for this in the company car while chit chatting to his boss. They didnt even offer to pay Now he doesnt even answer the phone while in the car.

[quote=tigerli;147788]I find it hard to believe that generally eating whilst driving is actually an offence.

Just to confirm that the fine was genuine and the resulting letter from the Kantonspolizei (Basel-Stadt) has been posted on the office notice-board as a warning for us all.

Exact wording = "Nichtnachkommen der Vorsichtspflicht - (Essen während dem Fahren) "Art. 90 Abs. 1 SVG" "Art. 31 Abs. 1 SVG" "Art. 3 Abs. 1 VRV".

This took place in 4058 Basel.

Fine as previously detailed 650.00.

Doing anything other than driving when driving is dangerous.

The croissant was likely crumbly, so not only could the driver only use one hand some of the time, buttery crumbs would likely fall in the driver's lap and distract him/her as they looked down and wiped them off. Greasy hands on the wheel is another potential problem. I would not rate the chances in an emergancy, like a child stepping out in front of a driver eating.

All that said, the fine and its additions is out of proportion, particularly when compared to punishments for those who actually do have accidents through carelessness etc. Often receiving no fine at all and the insurance paying the lot. But the Swiss police are financed through fines...

What about smoking ? Temporarily distracted whilst looking for the pack, extracting the ciggy, finding the lighter, fighting up, ensuring accuracy when using the ash tray are all similar short distractions. Has anyone been fined for smoking whilst driving ?

It is legal with a hands-free system.

That's absurd! Reminds me of a truck driver who was stopped some years ago by the police – he got an inspiration, started to play flute and countinued to steer the truck with his legs!

Ha ha. That reminds me of a friend of mine who got pulled over by a cop when he had had a little too much to drink. The cop asked him if he knew he was weaving, my friend looked at him and said:

"Weaving? I don't even know how to knit"

Needless to say, as he was very close to home the cop just let him go.