B.C. trucker who swerved into other lane in front of cop challenges conviction for holding cellphone

A truck driver ticketed for distracted driving in British Columbia tried to argue in court that picking up his phone and moving it to his dashboard shouldn't count.

A truck driver ticketed for distracted driving in British Columbia tried to argue in court that picking up his phone and moving it to his dashboard shouldn't count.

Driver Massoud Fazel Bakhsheshi appeared by phone in B.C. Supreme Court late last month to argue against his conviction.

A summary of the judge's reasons for her judgment on his appeal, which was heard in Chilliwack on Jan. 28 and posted online Monday, states that Bakhsheshi was convicted of using an electronic device while driving.

It's a charge under B.C.'s Motor Vehicle Act, and in his case, came with a $368 fine. No driving prohibition was entered, Justice Ardith Walkem said, but Bakhsheshi told the court that he received demerit points which, in combination with an existing number of points on his record, resulted in a four-month suspension of his driver's licence.

Bakhsheshi, a commercial driver who represented himself with help from a Farsi interpreter, described what happened the day he was ticketed as follows.

He'd been driving to Kamloops, and had lost his cellphone at some point during the drive. He wasn't sure where the phone was in the cab of his tractor-trailer, but at some point around Hope, he heard a sound coming from his door and realized that's where the phone was. Bakhsheshi said he picked it up with his left hand, passed it to his right hand and put it on the dashboard of his truck.

During that time, according to the judicial justice who convicted him initially, he demonstrated "the telltale signs of a duly distracted driver by swerving. With his large tractor-trailer combination, six axles, he swerved from his lane onto another lane."