Man pleads guilty to charge after stopping on hard shoulder of motorway 'to answer a text message'
A man has pleaded guilty to a charge of stopping on the hard shoulder of a motorway after he said he pulled in to answer a text message.
Joshua Van-Rietvelde (35), of The Gables, Randalstown, was spoken to be police on October 15 last year.
The charge is 'parking on hard shoulder of motorway' and the specifics are that on the M2 northbound near Templepatrick, the defendant 'caused a vehicle to stop and remain at rest on the hard shoulder of the motorway contrary to Regulation 9 of the Motorways Traffic Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1984 and Article 20(4) of the Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993'.
At Antrim Magistrates Court, sitting in Ballymena, a prosecutor said police saw a Jaguar vehicle parked on the hard shoulder near Templepatrick on-slip.
A prosecutor said the defendant told police he "stopped to answer a text message". He told police the "engine lights came on as I was driving".
A defence barrister said the defendant, a pilot, had been driving back from a meeting.
He added: "The text message was actually on the dashboard. It comes from Jaguar and was flashing up a system failure that the engine was losing power so he pulled in to read the text message of the 'what to do' from Jaguar."
The barrister said the defendant had only been stationary around a "minute" before police arrived.
The court heard there are no penalty points attached to the charge. The defendant was fined £100.