Hungry Liverpool motorist fined for eating bread at the wheel

by Mark Sumner. Published Thu 15 Jan 2009 17:05, Last updated: 2009-01-15

Ediri with the crumb of bread she was caught with

A hungry motorist got not a crumb of comfort from a policeman when she dared to scoff a crust of bread as she was driving her car in Liverpool.

Stunned Ediri Tsekiri was fined Â£60 and had three penalty points slapped on her licence for munching a two-inch long fragment from a sandwich she'd eaten earlier.

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.

"I had picked up a crust from a plastic bag on the seat next to me and I never took my eyes off the road.

"I ate a crust that was 2 inches long and and I was certainly no more distracted than if I had changed gear or switched radio stations.

"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 smack s one law for them and another for the rest of us.

"I suspect he wanted to hit some kind of target for issuing tickets and picked on me, but I consider myself a good driver and certainly never take unnecessary risks.

"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 individualy on its merits, but by eating at the wheel a driver is likely to be not in proper control of their vehicle."

Ediri, a research assistant at the University of Manchester added: "I've kept the remainder of the crust in the freezer.

"My partner said that I should send it into Top Gear to 'The Stig' to see if he can do a lap of the track while holding it, to see if it impairs his driving and lap times."