Kesgrave driver caught watching YouTube on phone Published duration 9 January 2019

image copyright Norfolk and Suffolk Roads Team image caption The driver was seen watching music videos on his phone

A driver was pulled over by police after he was spotted watching YouTube videos on his mobile phone.

The music fan was stopped in Bell Lane, Kesgrave, near Ipswich, by Suffolk traffic officers on Monday night.

Police had followed him along Main Road and said he was watching films on his phone which was attached to the car windscreen.

He was reported for "using a motor vehicle when television receiving apparatus was visible to the driver".

Suffolk Police said he told officers he thought it was OK to use YouTube to listen to music.

PC Jonny Firman, from the roads and armed policing team, said: "A video playing upon a mobile phone, in the view of the driver, could take away their concentration on actually driving the motor vehicle and it would only take a momentary lapse in concentration for a collision to occur."

Although officers were not able to say what the offender had been watching, they later clarified the law on watching videos or films while driving a vehicle, quoting from section 109 of the government Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986

Watching television while driving: The rules

No person shall drive, or cause or permit to be driven, a motor vehicle on a road, if the driver is in such a position as to be able to see, whether directly or by reflection, a television receiving apparatus or other cinematographic apparatus used to display anything other than information -

about the state of the vehicle or its equipment;

about the location of the vehicle and the road on which it is located;

to assist the driver to see the road adjacent to the vehicle; or

to assist the driver to reach his destination.