Skip to main content

Sense of humour failure?

A UK driver using his hands-free phone was spotted laughing at a joke by a police traffic officer and pulled over. The driver was told that laughing while driving can be an offence and was then questioned by the officer for 30 minutes. During this questioning, the driver was asked the colour of his hair.
February 28, 2012 Read time: 1 min
A UK driver using his hands-free phone was spotted laughing at a joke by a police traffic officer and pulled over. The driver was told that laughing while driving can be an offence and was then questioned by the officer for 30 minutes. During this questioning, the driver was asked the colour of his hair. The driver pointed out that he is bald due to alopecia, a condition that causes hair loss, and was then asked what colour his hair was, prior to the onset of the alopecia. The man was allowed to drive away without charge. Drivers in and around the Birkenhead Tunnel should take note from this incident however and refrain from laughing, as well as blinking excessively, sneezing or coughing, while at the wheel. Smiling while at the wheel is permissible but drivers should check the width of their smile and ensure that this does not exceed guidelines regarding field of vision. Bald drivers may be required to carry hair samples.

Related Content

  • Liar, liar
    July 16, 2012
    A would-be car thief in the UK has set what is believed to be an international record for the world's most pathetic lie. When caught in the act of stealing a car, the youth claimed, "It wasn't me," despite having his arm trapped inside the vehicle at the time. The car owner heard shouts for help early one morning and found the teenager lying on the roof of the vehicle with his arm stuck inside the door. The youth then uttered his excuse and asked the owner to free him. The owner instead called the police an
  • Demolition and destruction
    August 24, 2015
    In China an irate man used a wheeled loader with which to display his anger, forcing police to intervene. The man had recently found a job driving the wheeled loader following a period of unemployment. While out of work, the man had fallen out of favour with his in-laws, his father-in-law particularly so. While trying to make amends with his father-in-law and his, by now, estranged wife and children, the man became involved in a heated argument. In a display of anger, he then drove the wheeled loader at his
  • IAM’s FOI reveals England and Wales’ worst speeding offenders
    May 28, 2014
    A motorist travelling at 149mph (239.8kph) on the M25 at Swanley, Kent, south-east England, holds the record for the highest speed clocked by a speed camera in England and Wales between April 2013 and May 2014. The astonishing figure was revealed following Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to 39 police authorities by the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists). Other shocking figures from the 85% of police authorities that responded to the FOI request revealed that the highest speed recorded on a 30mph
  • Biking ban
    May 26, 2016
    A man in the UK city of Liverpool has been banned from driving for three years following an incident during which he rode a motorcycle through a busy covered shopping centre. Neither he nor his passenger were wearing helmets at the time, an offence in the UK, while he did not possess a licence for a motorcycle or have insurance for it. Footage from the CCTV cameras in the shopping centre show him happily weaving through the throng of shoppers (including several parents with small children in buggies) on his