Crackdown on drivers using electronic devices
Officers, some dressed in plainclothes, target intersections across the region
Victoria police Sgt. Shannon Perkins flags a driver on Blanshard Street as part of a crackdown on distracted driving on Tuesday. Officers with Saanich police, Victoria police and the Capital Regional District’s Integrated Road Safety Unit stood at a dozen intersections and nabbed drivers using tablets, checking text messages and using Google Maps. ICBC premiums have gone up for anyone caught using electronic devices while driving.
Police officers, some dressed in plainclothes and some in full uniform, stood at intersections across the region Tuesday trying to nab drivers using cellphones.
Officers with Saanich police, Victoria police and the Capital Regional District’s Integrated Road Safety Unit fanned out at a dozen intersections and pulled over drivers using tablets, checking text messages and using Google maps.
Saanich police Sgt. Al Gurzinski said he tapped on the window of one driver using his cellphone at a red light at the high-crash intersection of Quadra and McKenzie streets.
The motorist said: “I’m not driving, I’m stopped.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Gurzinski told him. If the car is on and you’re in traffic, you’re driving, he said.
Another officer caught a motorist with a Samsung tablet in his right hand, but he took the ticket in stride, thanking the officer for being so nice.
The police departments are partnering with the Insurance Corp. of B.C. to launch a distracted-driving awareness campaign twice a year across the province.
Between 7:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., officers handed out 86 tickets for using an electronic device and 63 tickets for other traffic violations.
In an effort to break a bad habit that verges on addiction, the Victoria Police Department partnered with Restorative Justice Victoria in a pilot project that allowed drivers to not pay the $543 ticket if they participated in a workshop. Victoria police spokesman Const. Matt Rutherford said he was disheartened to pull over one of the workshop participants for texting while driving just a few weeks after.
“I think cellphones in our society, it’s a habit and just like any habit it needs to be broken, whether it’s putting your phone in a trunk or putting it in a bag you can’t reach,” Rutherford said.
Distracted driving means more than just using a cellphone and can include eating, drinking or anything that prevents you from driving safely. “Distracted driving is any act that takes away your focus from driving,” said ICBC spokeswoman Colleen Woodger.
ICBC says distracted and inattentive driving are among the top contributing factors in policereported injury crashes in B.C. and are a factor in more than one in four deaths on B.C. roads.
On March 1, ICBC raised driver-risk premium penalties for drivers repeatedly caught using electronic devices, putting it on par with impaired driving and excessive speeding.
A driver with two distracted driving tickets in a three-year period will pay almost $2,000 in financial penalties, an increase of $740.
Those penalties could soar higher if the provincial government goes ahead with its proposal to change the auto insurance premiums system.
Drivers with several tickets for distracted driving, drunk driving or excessive speeding could see the driver penalty points and driver risk points increase by 40 per cent.
A driver with several serious convictions would see basic insurance premiums increase.
The public is being asked to weigh in on the proposed changes through a questionnaire about ICBC at engage.gov.bc.ca/ratefairness; it’s available until April 5 at 4 p.m.