10 Ways to Land a Fine whilst driving, that you never knew about

Accidents on the road are common. You’re safer in a plane than you are on the road. Driving laws are very tight now to try reduce this accident rate, but there are a few things you may not be aware of.

Obviously you should never use your phone whilst driving. This doesn’t just mean calling though. You could land a fine for simply touching your phone whilst in the driver’s seat. Here are a few ways that could land you a fine on the road, and maybe even some license points, that you may not be aware of.

Paying for a drive-thru with your Smartphone

This is fairly ridiculous if I’m honest. It’s becoming more common for customers to use Apple pay as a replacement for their cards. However, this requires holding your phone up to a card machine, and apparently doing this at a drive-thru is considered a felony. It’s not really much different to using a contact-less card really, but whatever.

Driving without Shoes

Driving barefooted has been a common myth for a long time, and most of us have probably done it at some point anyway. While it’s technically not illegal, you could land a fine if you can’t control your car due to bare feet. As long as you can operate the controls safely without your shoes, you should be okay. Is it worth the risk though?

Holding your Phone with the Engine on

Phone laws in cars are extremely strict now, and it’s very understandable. A lot of deaths from dangerous driving have been caused due to phone usage, including people texting or on social media. Simply being caught on your phone with the engine on is enough to land you a fine now. It’s a bad habit that a lot of people are still guilty of, and it’s really not worth those 6 points on your license.

Image: CNBC

Checking your Sat-nav

Again, not technically illegal. Sat-navs are perfectly fine to be used while driving, but you shouldn’t mess with them too much without stopping first. If the police see you fiddling about with one and think you’re not in control, you’ll be halted and penalized.

Eating whilst driving

Eating whilst driving probably isn’t the best idea in the world, but there’s no law against it. However, letting it distract your driving and vehicle control will get you in trouble. If you’re really that hungry, just stop somewhere. There will be much less mess too.

Driving with a snowy roof

This shouldn’t be a problem here in the UK, but we still get our share of snow at least once a year. If you need to drive on a snow day though, make sure you clear it off your car good, including all glass panels. If there’s a risk of anything falling off of it that could cause somebody to swerve it could lead to an accident. It would be your fault though, and the law will have you for it.

Throwing something out the window

Obviously you shouldn’t litter. If you do, you’re a terrible person. If you throw anything out of your car window, regardless of litter or not, you could land yourself in trouble.

Image: Express

Smoking

It’s now illegal to smoke in a car in the presence of anybody under the age of 18. Fair enough, a box full of cancerous smoke fumes sounds quite horrible, and very dangerous to any young developing lungs.

Flashing your headlights

While it’s okay to flash your headlights to make other drivers aware of your presence, any other reason could give you a run in with the law. It has the potential to dazzle unsuspected drivers facing you, so it’s best to be avoided when possible.

Speeding

You should already know this one for the most part. Speeding is illegal and is a great way of losing your license if you do it a lot. However, as of the 24th April (2017) speeding fines are doubling to £200 and 6 license points. Time to slow down on those country lanes by the sounds of things.

Some of these may seem extreme, but they’re fairly level headed compared to some of the world’s most unusual driving laws.

Source: Express