LAC LA BICHE - A split-second decision to check an incoming text message — at the exact moment his truck was passing an RCMP member parked in an unmarked vehicle — gave a Plamondon-area man a moment in court last Tuesday.
Gavreil Kuznetsov was eventually ordered to pay the $287 fine and lose three driving demerits following his 20-minute attempt in Lac La Biche Provincial Court to prove that a ticket for driving while using his cell phone was "unfair," "harsh," and "silly."
Although the courthouse has restricted in-person cases due to COVID-19 restrictions, Kuznetsov made his stance in person, representing himself in the proceedings. Court heard that on the afternoon of Feb. 17 of this year, Kuznetsov was driving his pickup truck southbound on Plamondon's Main Street when a member of the RCMP's Integrated Traffic Unit issued him with distracted driving ticket for holding a cell phone.
While admitting that he did pick up the phone to look at it, Kuznetsov defended that "it was just for a second."
"I was driving — I got a text and I took a quick look and put the phone down," said Kuznetsov, saying he was driving to the bank.
Athabasca-based RCMP Cpl. Curtis Harsula testified that he was conducting traffic enforcement in Plamondon that afternoon, and while watching traffic from the parking lot of a main street hotel, he saw a pickup truck pass by with the driver holding a cell phone. The officer turned on the emergency lights of the unmarked police vehicle and followed the truck until it pulled over at a downtown Plamondon bank. Along with the violation ticket, Kuznetsov was also ordered to take a mandatory breathalyzer test — a now-common part of any traffic stop — which recorded zero levels.
Concerned that his copy of the arrest information didn't include a reference to the breathalyzer, Kuznetsov challenged the officer for leaving out information from his report. The officer countered that the mandatory alcohol screening test "has no consecquence" on this particular distracted driving charge — further stating that he didn't include in the report the way he put his vehicle into gear or navigated a right turn to catch up to Kuzetsov's truck. The ticket for holding the cell phone while driving is the contravention of the law that resulted in the court case, he said.
The Plamondon-area man used the time as his own defence counsel to challenge the law, saying "there is a difference between looking and driving and taking a quick look at something as you are driving." A driver is constantly "looking left and looking right" as they drive, said Kuznetsov, seeing signs, pedestrians, fences and houses. Getting a ticket and having his insurance affected for a glance at a cell phone "is harsh," he said.
Provincial Court Judge Ivan Ladouceur said Kuznetsov was not being charged for "looking at a bale in a field, or a tree ... or a dead, frozen coyote on the side of the road," he was charged with looking at a handheld device that is part of the Distracted Driving law. "I don't make the laws, I just follow them ... This is what the Albera government has stated as the law. if you think they are harsh, you do have rights ... and you can complain to (your) member of the Legislature."
Kuznetsov was given until Dec. 23 to pay the $287 fine, or take two days in jail in default.
Complaining after the sentence that his vehicle insurance was going to go up "big-time," he called the law "silly," before leaving the courtroom.
