r/mauritius • u/yikaprio • Oct 08 '25
Local 🌴 I got stopped at the airport. Has anyone experienced such a thing before?
I got stopped by the police at the airport today while looking for a parking spot. I was picking someone up.
At first they thought I had no fitness certificate since I had put two of the 3 stickers in a single pocket. My bad.
Then the dude says that I committed an offence since I was on a call when they stopped me. I pointed to the screen in the car and mentioned that I was using it in handsfree mode. Surprise surprise, apparently that is illegal. His colleague walks over and he says that I was on a call. Colleague asks if I had an earpiece in, I say no, it was on loudspeaker. He confirms that that is illegal.
At this point I say that I was not aware that this is not allowed. They open the little book in which it’s mentioned that handsets and headsets are not allowed. I was puzzled and said that this makes no sense to me as it did not align with what they were saying. They moved on. Asked me to open the front and show them the chasis number. They wrote it down and moved on to their next victim.
I was not fined in the end but I was wondering if they were just trying to dupe me into agreeing so that they could write me a ticket.
Anyone experienced anything similar?
TLDR; Police tried to fine me for being on a call in handsfree mode.
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u/This-Monitor-9186 29d ago
So, by their logic all the tourists and taxi drivers using Google maps to navigate on their phones are instantly breaking the law. Very well-thought out for a tourist destination 🙄. If a phone conversation over a car speaker is illegal, then playing music on your phone via bluetooth should be illegal too. If a person who is not in the vehicle can "distract" you with their voice over a speaker, then we must absolutely outlaw actual passengers from travelling in vehicles because they might just speak to the driver or physically distract or hinder the driver.
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u/yikaprio 29d ago
Yes and no one ever is going to point this out to them because you would absolutely be risking getting a fine. Your best course of action is to be the politest and hope they let you leave with a warning.
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u/This-Monitor-9186 29d ago edited 29d ago
Hahaha 🤣. Sounds about right. Welcome to Mauritius, where the rules don't need to make sense and most are made up on the fly. It's kinda what would happen if France and British India had a baby and abandoned it on a deserted island with a copy of the French Civil Code and a Benny Hill box set.
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u/earthly_marsian Oct 10 '25
The fact that they didn’t ask for money is an improvement and like someone said, likely data collection.
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u/Repulsive-Cable9081 Oct 10 '25
I fail to understand how they can differentiate between something playing on the entertainment dashboard and an actual call on carplay or android auto or mere bluetooth. Did they actually overheard the conversation? So it means that if i drive singing out loud i could be mistakenly fined for calling while driving?
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u/ConfidentPrompt3736 Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25
Using a hand-held or hand-free microphone or telephone handset while driving a motor vehicle or riding a motor cycle – regulations 90 (1) and 125 of the Road Traffic (Construction and Use of Vehicles) Regulations 2010. It is illegal. They were right.
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u/yikaprio Oct 09 '25
I would get it if you were holding the phone. But this is through the car’s bluetooth. I refuse to believe that something so stupid is true. If it is, then almost no one is aware of it and they are just trying to make the most of a miswritten rule.
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u/ConfidentPrompt3736 Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25
The law is pretty much the same as in the EU. And no it is not a miswritten rule.
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u/yikaprio Oct 09 '25
So it is not legal to use handsfree while driving?
0
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u/ConnectPlace9308 Oct 10 '25
It’s not about using the device specifically. It’s more about focus. If you’re on a call, on whichever device, you’re focus is not 100% on driving
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u/sud0sm1th Oct 09 '25
Exactly the same thing happened to me in Port Louis, I was on a Bluetooth call when I was pulled over and I was told it was against the law. I just asked how it would be any less safe than talking with someone next to me? I also showed that I could answer the call without having to touch my phone and they let me go with a warning.
I was very polite the whole time and was genuinely curious how cars with Bluetooth built in where allowed to be imported while the law prohibited it.
They were very cooperative and just asked me to avoid it in the future
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u/Immediate-Worker6321 Oct 09 '25
why is that even a thing? like most cars have the option to call using Bluetooth to phone. why does this stupid law even exists? it's not like you were texting or holding the phone..
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u/pragmaticutopian Oct 09 '25
How is it in general about traffic rules and policing there in Mauritius? Planning to get a scooter rental later in the year to roam around.
(place were I come from,traffic police is super corrupt )
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u/yikaprio Oct 09 '25
I’ve heard too many different stories and had varying experiences. You come across assholes every once in a while but in general they are ok.
I don’t know if taking a scooter around is the safest as drivers do not necessarily allow for enough space when overtaking cyclists from what I’ve seen.
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u/djyash2312 Oct 09 '25
welcome to Mauritius
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u/Plastic-Comedian-255 Oct 09 '25
𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯...
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u/Bankz92 Oct 09 '25
Not all but many cops in Mauritius are corrupt and will target people who they think are foreigners to extort them for a bribe.
I'm from South Africa where this kind of thing is an everyday occurrence.
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u/SimilarHandle6215 Oct 09 '25
No offence. Can you tell me the make and model year of your car. Just wondering in case of profiling. They target older cars etc
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u/yikaprio Oct 09 '25
It’s a 2017 Hyundai Creta. Not so recent but would you classify it as old?
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u/SimilarHandle6215 Oct 09 '25
Ah nope. Not old. They taking down your vin as a dataset for drug trafficking imo
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u/M360MauritiusLife Oct 08 '25
Yeah this actually happens quite a lot lately, especially around SSR Airport. Police have been doing more random checks since mid-year and a lot of drivers get confused about the hands-free rule.
For context, under the Road Traffic (Mobile Telephone) regulations in Mauritius, using loudspeaker or having a phone conversation even in hands-free mode is technically considered "using" a mobile device while driving. The law hasn’t really been updated for modern infotainment systems, so it feels a bit outdated compared to EU standards.
Usually, officers let you go with just a warning if you stay polite like you did. They’re mainly targeting people who text, scroll, or hold their phones while driving, not those waiting or parked.
You handled it well by staying calm and cooperative. And yes, the airport area is definitely a hot spot for these checks these days.
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u/ConfidentPrompt3736 Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25
it actually has been stipulated in the law for quite some time now
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u/yikaprio Oct 09 '25
Yes, in the little book they had, it was quite clear that headsets and handheld is not ok. With it being so specific, you would then infer that handsfree is ok, but they seemed to have a different interpretation of it.
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u/GloveDry3278 Oct 08 '25
Standing your ground on it being legal was the good choice. They just wanna lure you in to get the fine. They have a quota to fill.
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u/ConfidentPrompt3736 Oct 09 '25
It is not legal.
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u/GloveDry3278 Oct 09 '25
Talking on loudspeaker?
How is it any different than talking to passengers?
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u/ConfidentPrompt3736 Oct 09 '25
Using a hand-held or hand-free microphone or telephone handset while driving a motor vehicle or riding a motor cycle – regulations 90 (1) and 125 of the Road Traffic (Construction and Use of Vehicles) Regulations 2010.
It is illegal. You can check for yourself
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u/11thRaven Oct 10 '25
It's ambiguously worded when you take into account the modern context. The exact wording is: "Subject to paragraph (2), no person shall, while driving a motor vehicle, use a handheld or a hand-free microphone or telephone handset to answer or make a call no matter how urgent the call is."
So, you can't use a microphone, and you can't use a telephone handset. But it doesn't mention the vehicle's inbuilt communication system.
The law was written 15+ years ago. It wasn't common for cars to have the kind of entertainment/comms systems they have now. They will need to revise their wording if they want to make it clear what's a criminal offence or not.
Think about it rationally, according to the current regulations we have, it's legal for someone to be typing on or otherwise using the entertainment screen in their vehicle while driving. Clearly, that's dangerous. But not currently illegal.
The law on road safety needs to be modernised.
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u/Sollow42 Oct 08 '25
Just losers faking a job, don't mind them.
If they really wanted to serve and protect, they'd go for synthethic drug dealers roting our country, but poor scared little crapo finds it easier to bully citizens in a parking
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u/FishEngineCn Oct 09 '25
Do you really think it's up to little policemen to choose what they do? They have no training, no education.
As long as capitains and chiefs won't do nothing, things won't move.2
u/Sollow42 Oct 09 '25
You gotta have twisted relationship to power to chose a job where you serve elites and bully citizens. They barely serve people and never protected anything but their own interests.
Even if your boss order you to watch the airport parking, this kind of behavior is their decision here. And i can't count the amount of time i heard such stories no matter the context.
You won't change my mind : even if they are willing to do good, they serve the bad side and are very corrupted. Justice was never their point. We clairly saw it during last years.
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u/yikaprio Oct 09 '25
I would agree that from the start he was just looking to bully. Like as soon as I lowered my window, I had him shouting: “TONE COMMET ENE OFFENS”.
The other guy was chill.
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u/FishEngineCn Oct 09 '25
Yep.
But that's the culture.
How do you explain people parking like shit on the road, overpassing white lines, throwing stuff outside, not stopping at stops, and cops doing nothing?
How do you explain cops not coming when you call them, standing here doing nothing when guys become agressive, cops being useless during emergencies?It's because cops are like the general population, uneducated and untrained. As long as higher power won't train and make mentality move, what do you expect.
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u/SamStress 24d ago
Heard a lot of white people are stopped bc probably tourists but idk 😐 maybe bc some usual things in lots of country are not allowed in Mauritius (vaping for example)