RCMP crackdown on distracted drivers continues
Despite the heavy penalties for the act – and the potential for even more drastic consequences – police have had little trouble finding drivers who insist on talking on their phones while behind the wheel.
“People still are taking that risk,” Prince George RCMP Sgt. Matt LaBelle said Wednesday. “They know they shouldn’t be using their cellphone and yet they’re using it.
“And whether they think they can hold it in front of them or hold it down below or hold it to their ear, we’re seeing them use their cellphones.”
Aided by volunteers from Citizens on Patrol, members of the detachment’s traffic services unit were out Wednesday afternoon pulling over suspect drivers as part of a stepped-up enforcement campaign against distracted driving.
It began at the start of February and finishes at the end of this month. As of the midway point, 51 drivers had been ticketed for distracted driving, which also includes reading while driving and allowing a pet on your lap.
The end of the campaign won’t mean the end of efforts to keep drivers away from their phones while behind the wheel.
“We don’t put the blinders on throughout the rest of the year,” LaBelle said.
COP program coordinator Michael Burt has noticed a change in drivers’ behaviour over the years the volunteer group has been keeping an eye out for distracted drivers under its Cellwatch program
“What we’ve found is that people now will come up to an intersection, at a red light, and they’ll look at the pedestrian, they’ll look to see if anybody’s watching, before they pick up the phone,” Burt said. “When we started the program, people wouldn’t even bother to look up.”
But the better answer, he said, is to avoid taking that risk in the first place.
First-time offenders pay $543 in total costs, made up of a $368 fine plus four demerit points adding $175. Total costs go up to $888 for a second offence and increase for each subsequent offence.
Texting or making a call while at a red light is a violation. If you need to make a phone call or check messages, park your vehicle in a safe place off the road, when it is safe to do so. A safe place does not include the shoulder of a highway.
Using a hands-free device is OK but you should still be careful.
“It’s better to pull over, give your full focus to the person on the phone – talk to them or get your message to them – and then get back on the road,” said Insurance Corporation of British Columbia road safety coordinator Doug MacDonald,
Distracted driving is the secondmost common cause of deaths and injuries on B.C. roads, according to ICBC. Many of those accidents occur at intersections, MacDonald said.