One spring day last year, Marika Skye Winthrope was driving to work when she got an emergency message from home. Her developmentally disabled brother was trying to tell her that something was seriously wrong with their mother.
And so, according to court documents, Winthrope waited until she was stopped at a red light on Marine Drive in North Vancouver, and began dialling 911.
Unfortunately for Winthrope, an RCMP officer was watching as she picked up her phone, and immediately pulled her over for distracted driving.
Winthrope received a 90-day driving prohibition, later upheld on review by the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles.
But this week, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ordered the superintendent to end the ban, saying it was unreasonable.
“The adjudicator in this case …. had to consider not only Ms. Winthrope’s driving record, but whether that record showed her to be a dangerous driver who might put the safety of the public at risk,” Justice Nathan Smith wrote.
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Distracted driving prohibitions are “almost never” overturned because of the connection between the offence and serious crashes on the roadway, according to Kyla Lee, a Vancouver lawyer who specializes in driving law.
She said Winthrope’s case raises interesting questions about how the superintendent justifies prohibitions, as well as about the actions of police.
“It highlights some of the concerns about how broad the electronic device provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act are and how broadly they’re being enforced at the roadside,” Lee told CBC News.
Read the full CBC story here.