WINNIPEG- An elderly Winnipeg man is vowing to fight a ticket for using a cell phone while driving, saying he doesn’t even own one.

Laszlo Piszker was driving home Friday afternoon with his wife Margaret after a lunch at The Olive Garden when they were stopped by police at Portage Avenue just east of Moray Street. Piszker says officers accused him of talking on his cell phone – he told them that’s not possible.

“I don’t have a cell phone, I’ve never had a cell phone. And I kept saying that over and over, and they wouldn’t check,” Piszker said Monday.

The couple, who are both in their 70’s, complained that the officers refused to listen and became aggressive when Laszlo tried to refuse the ticket and Margaret tried to get out of the car.

“They kept saying ‘we will arrest you’”, says the man who emigrated from Hungary 25 years ago. “I come from a communist country. Even there things never happened like that.”

In the end, Piszker took the $199.80 ticket but says he will fight in court before even considering paying the fine.

It’s a bizarre turn of events for the Crestview couple who have not embraced much in the way of modern electronic technology, let alone drive around talking and texting on a cell phone. The only electronic device is his car is his remote garage door opener, says Piszker. They have a computer at home but no internet access. They have no answering machine on their home telephone.

The use of most hand-held electronic devices like cell phones was banned in Manitoba through amendments to the province’s Highway Graf in 2009:

Definitions re hand-operated electronic devices 215.1(1) The following definitions apply in this section. "hand-operated electronic device" means
(a) a cellular telephone;
(b) another electronic device that
(i) includes a telephone function, and
(ii) normally is held in the user's hand during use or requires the user to use his or her hand to operate any of its functions;
(c) an electronic device that is not otherwise described in clause (a) or (b) but that
(i) is capable of transmitting or receiving e-mail or other text-based messages, and
(ii) normally is held in the user's hand during use or requires the user to use his or her hand to operate any of its functions; or
(d) any other electronic device that is prescribed as a hand-operated electronic device by the regulations. (« appareil électronique à commande manuelle »)
"use", in relation to a hand-operated electronic device, means any of the following actions:
(a) holding the device in a position in which it may be used;
(b) operating any of the device's functions;
(c) communicating by means of the device with another person or another device, by spoken word or otherwise;
(d) looking at the device's display; and
(e) taking any other action with or in relation to the device that is prescribed by the regulations. (« utiliser »)
Using hand-operated electronic device while driving prohibited
215.1(2) No person shall use a hand-operated electronic device while driving a vehicle on a highway unless,
(a) before using the device by hand, the person safely drives the vehicle off the roadway and keeps the vehicle stationary while using the device; or
(b) the device
(i) is a cellular telephone or another electronic device that includes a telephone function, and
(ii) is configured and equipped to allow hands-free use as a telephone and is used in a hands-free manner.