University researcher Ediri, 36, was driving her Vauxhall Safira between appointments, when she was stopped by an officer in a marked police van. He informed Ediri that she had been seen eating while driving and that she could have killed a child if one had stepped into the road while she was distracted by eating. She was issued with the fine and penalty points with a ticket for the offence of "not being in proper control of a vehicle".
Mother-of-two Ediri, of Wavertree, Liverpool, said, "The officer asked me what I would have done if a child had stepped out in front of me. My reply was that I would have put my foot on the brake the same as in any other situation. He tried to suggest that what it was 'worse' than using a mobile phone while driving, but I don't accept that for a moment. The whole procedure lasted less than a second.
"Everyone takes one hand off the wheel at some point quite legitimately when they change gear, roll down the window or change the heater settings. Police officers don't drive with both hands on the wheel at every moment. In fact, the dashboard of the police van was bristling with all kinds of equipment, including a computer screen which is touch controlled. That's not hands free and it smacks one law for them and another for the rest of us.
"If I had been sneezing that could have been more dangerous than eating a morsel of bread. This is a shocking case of over-zealous policing. Hounding drivers like this brings the police and the law into disrepute."
A Merseyside Police spokesman said: "There is no correlation between pushing a button on a radio, or changing gear and eating whilst driving. Ms Tsekiri was issued with a fixed penalty for not being in proper control of a vehicle. Each case is treated individually on its merits, but by eating at the wheel a driver is likely to be not in proper control of their vehicle."
There's a news video here.
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