Talking or texting while driving may get someone a ticket, but a California court has allowed drivers to watch map apps on their phones when behind the wheels.
Many drivers take help from maps on their smartphones while driving. However, in January 2012, Steven Spriggs of Fresno, California was ticketed and fined $165 by a California Highway Patrol officer for looking at a map on his iPhone and trying to find an alternate route when stuck in traffic.
Spriggs argued that the law only prohibited talking on the phone, not looking at a map and first challenged the ticket at a traffic court, where he lost. He then appealed to a three-judge panel in Fresno County Superior Court, where he lost again.
However, Spriggs was determined that the law did not apply to him. Spriggs challenged the decision in the appellate court with the help of a law firm and now the 5th District Court of Appeal has reversed the ruling.
The appellate judges said that the law prohibits people from talking on their cellphones without a hands-free device and the law should have been explained more clearly. However, the law does not apply to looking at maps on phones while driving. The law the California Highway Patrol officer used to ticket Spriggs applies specifically to drivers who are "listening and talking" on smartphones but not using a mobile phone in other ways such as looking for directions.
Previously, mobile phones were mainly used for telephone conversations or texting. However, over the last few years, a user can do a lot of other things on their smartphones such as looking at a map to get directions while driving. The law was initially enacted in 2006 and the first iPhone was launched and released in 2007, which revolutionized the handset market.
Spriggs' attorney Scott Reddie said that now it is up to the state attorney general's office to make a decision if it wants to challenge the recent ruling to the California Supreme Court. Nicholas Pacilio, a spokesman for Attorney General Kamala Harris, said that the office is reviewing the ruling.
Reddie and Pacilio said that neither of them are familiar with other U.S. states that prohibit a driver from looking at a cellphone map app while driving.
