Police Sting Targets Cell Phone And Seat Belts In PG
Prince George, B.C.- Over 300 drivers face fines after a crackdown on people talking on cell phones while driving and not using their seat belts.
The weekend blitz was coordinated by the North District Traffic Services in Prince George.
In all, 221 drivers were charged with failing to use a seat belt, while 80 got tickets for talking on an electronic device on Saturday and Sunday in the city.
In addition, the City Traffic Services picked off a further four impaired drivers.
The North District unit employed a new twist in that unmarked cars and trucks of makes and models not normally used in police enforcment were on the streets. The unfamiliar vehicles caught a lot of drivers off guard.
"We will be doing this again before the end of March" says Staff Sergeant Pat McTiernan of North District Traffic Services "We had a lot of people coming to us asking us when we were going to do something about the drivers who continue to use their cell phones. We brought in some police vehicles that were not the type usually seen in the community, and achieved some good results."
McTiernan says the fine for using a cell phone while driving is $167.00 while a hands free headset, or handsfree device can be purchased for $99.00
In addition to the fines handed out for cell phone use and lack of seat belt use, McTiernan says there were a number of other infractions:
- 2-no insurance
- 2-drug seizures
- 1-criminal code, ( driving while disqualified)
- 2-prohibition notices served ( superintendent of motor vehicles had ordered licences pulled)
- 3-driving with no license
- 1-failure to display an "N"
- 1-driving without due care and attention
- 1-illegal U-turn
- 2-fail to produce drivers license
Comments
People dont seem to get the message. Buckle up and quit talking.
Using **Ghost** cars are border line to entrapment.
A number of years ago the police were using vehicles with boats on top etc;, and as a consequence the court ruled that this was entrapment and they discontinued the practice.
I hope that they were able to turn a profit on the operation!
The law is the law. It doesn’t matter how the police catch you. If you are breaking the law, you will get caught. That’s it that’s all.
Hardly anyone is obeying the cell phone laws.
Its a bit of a joke!
They were catching people at the intersection of Hwy 97 and 15th Ave – one of the busiest and most complicated intersections in the city – frontage roads, pedestrians, and semi-trucks. Totally dangerous to be texting and driving at that location.
seriously texting and driving anytime any place is dangerous, hands free talking is distracting enough. I have no problem with this law just a very difficult one to enforce and most people know this same as speeding many are still willing to take the chance and odds are good they will not get caught
“If you are breaking the law, you will get caught.”
Sometimes.
The odds are what?
Some people like playing the odds. It’s human nature.
If it wasn’t and people would all abide by the law, we would have a very small police force and we could enjoy free swimming, free skating, lower ticket prices at the CN, and even smoother pavement.
So remember, let those cell phone using drivers next to you know how much in taxes they you are costing you.
Good for the police! We see far, far too much of this while driving.
Drivers beware, its not only the police who are watching, many members of the public are watching you too and WILL call it in.
What people don’t seem to realise is that people using cell phones while driving are a very great danger to us all.
Our brains are only capable of doing one cognitive thing at a time.
Either raise the charge to impaired driving or demand that the cell phone makers disable the devices after 15kM/hr.
Try this awareness test.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSQJP40PcGI&feature=player_embedded
âDespite the fact that it deadens a driver’s reactions more than alcohol, and in its consequences is as destructive and devastating as drunk driving, attitudes to driving while using a hand-held mobile phone and driving under the influence could not be more different.â
Calum MacDonald, The Herald
http://negligentdriving.com/psa.cfm
Give it a few more years and computers will all drive our vehicles for us then the issue of talking, texting, DUI will all be a thing of the past we can just sit back turn off our brains and veg. We will have machines to do everything for us and we will all be convinced that this will be required all for our own safety benefits.
baaaaaaaaaa says the sheep
Just curious though…If I had a computer in my car and used it while waiting at lights or while driving would that be ok?. I have seen numerous RCMP doing such that with the ones in their vehicles…..dont get me wrong I am all for cracking down on people using their cell phones while driving but just saying lead by example.
Entrapment? How do you figure? Entrapment would be when the RCMP provide you with the phone, put you in the car, and let you drive away talking on it….
Entrapment is NOT using a ghost car to pull people over for breaking the law…..
“Our brains are only capable of doing one cognitive thing at a time.”
Well, we are only able to do one thing if that is what we are told to do.
Did you see the direction at the end – to watch out for cyclists.
If the author of the video actually believes the suggestion, then he/she is treading on very dangerous grounds.
Why? Because, since some do not see the walking bear, and the author believes we cannot be doing two things at the same time, then, by telling us to watch out for cyclists he/she is again telling us to concentrate on one thing only. Very irresponsible!!!
The fact of the matter is, we can do many things at the same time, especially with experience. However, some of us are not as good as others, and we are not the best we can be every day. Some days are better than others.
So, we can
– scan the road ahead for traffic
– scan the road for direction changes to our destination
– watch for traffic signs
– familiarize ourselves with surroundings which are totally new to us and make judgments based on what we see
– keep an itinerary in our head of where we are going with respect to several destinations and chose an optimum path to get there
– switch feet to the proper pedal … typically
– work levers on the wheel and/or console to activate gears, wipers, washer fluid, lights, turn signals, etc.
– see and feel approximately how fast we are going without even looking at the speedometer
– scan instruments on the dash to let us know how the car is doing.
– scan mirrors to see how traffic around us is behaving
– carry on a conversation with passengers
– think about our cousin in the hospital
– wonder when that project is going to be finished.
and so on and so on …..
We are prepared to do all those things and more importantly we can determine priorities as the conditions shift.
To put stupid video like that in front of us and have everyone react as if they are dumb and pretending that is the level of our abilities is not helping the situation one bit. The reality is totally different.
The reality is that we all have different abilities and we all have changing abilities. We are all human, and those are called human factors.
“Just curious though…If I had a computer in my car and used it while waiting at lights or while driving would that be ok?”
Those drivers who use a GPS, use a computer. Some need to be activated with hands, others are voice activated to provide specific information that is available. In either case, it is one more thing in a car to scan.
The question is, is it helpful? I think it can be if you are looking for an unfamiliar address. The hunting for streets and the hunting for those normally invisible house numbers means that the driver can pay more attention to what is happening with traffic around the car while the voice with a texas drawl that you donwloaded from the internet for your Hummer tells you exactly which streets you are passing and how far to the next turn and even when to stay in the left lane to get ready for it. So, it is safer in one case and less safe in another application.
We have to remember, crashes, as well as crime are generally going down in North America. As we keep trying to get them further down, we are getting closer and closer to the point when the next increment in reduction is going to be much more difficult. We have managed to deal quite well with vehicular safety, in spite of a momentary lapse with the introduction of SUVs and their initial lousy safety records.
We can still do a lot better with roads, both provincially and in cities such as PG.
The final challenge will be to deal with the human factor beyond just ergonomics. That is going to be a tough one, especially in the “wild west” environment we live in.
The proof is in the video gus, like it or not.
A similar study was done at a university with a clown on a unicycle, the results are frightening.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/what-clown-on-a-unicycle-studying-cell-phone-distraction/
The study was done with people walking.
“Cell phone usage may cause inattentional blindness even during a simple activity that should require few cognitive resources.”
The above statement includes hands free phones. Phones should not work in a car period!
“Distracted driving is the new drunk driving”
http://www.economist.com/node/18561075
The reality Gus is people are dieing because of distracted drivers.
Let me put the video in laymens terms for you gus. The people passing the ball is you talking on your phone.
I for one am happy to see this happen even though I don’t agree with the seat belt law.
Note to the RCMP……….how about a crack down on those who choose to use those ridiculous headlights of varying colours. Just as dangerous to me as a driver using a cell phone.
Excellent work. Planned safety traps like this are an effective way to send a message about enforcement, and take some dangerous (and several illegal) drivers off of the road.
And the use of unmarked vehicles isn’t entrapment. Just like having plain clothes officers involved in busts or stings is not entrapment. Having a marked police vehicle is not a necessary legal requirement for police. Entrapment is when one is tricked or coerced into breaking the law and then arrested for it. None of these people were tricked into breaking the law, they were already doing it and they got caught. Nobody’s fault but their own, and they should accept the consequences.
Speaking about enforcement. I regularly visit certain website forums related to snowmobiling.
According to a whole bunch of snowmobilers that often visit Valemount, the local boys in blue are picking on them for such petty things as no breakaway brakes functioning on their trailers, illegal lighting on their vehicles, using legal lighting when it’s illegal to do so,(foglights)you know those lower lights in your bumper? They are illegal to use unless weather conditions are so that they are needed. Driving around town with them on during the day or in clear conditions are grounds for a ticket. Anyway back to the infraction list. Not having adequate tiedowns securing their sleds/quads, opened but not actually open at the time, alcohol containers, no mudflaps on their highlifted Pickups, some drivers have the nerve to get pissed at them for being pulled over when the road is icy.
The list goes on and on. These people really think they are getting picked on because of the licence plate they have on the rear bumper. They accuse the boys of not having anything better to do. It gets very amusing to see just how some people think about whats right or wrong.
Dragonmaster am sure many are the same people that ignore the extreme stay the hell out of the back country avalanche risk we have had at times in the past several years. Perhaps we need to initiate a flat lander fee when they want to come drive on our roads and play in our mountains to help pay for all the rescues we have to do. That will really get them worked up :)
How about the touch screen displays built into the dash these days. I drove a rented ford explorer a short time ago, everything you want to do with the radio, heating etc is off the touch screen. Fun trying to find the right little box to touch, eyes down off the road. So much easier and less distracting when there was just a few knobs and levers which one did not even have to hardly look at. Cell phones are just part of the problem.
I know someone who got fined for using the cell phone, just last week…pretty hefty fine too!
Keep up the stupidity, folks. The city of PG gets a cool quarter million from your fines. Keeps my taxes down. Supposedly. Until the city decides to do another stoopid project.
It’s a sure sign of warmer weather huh?
gus…..laws like singapore
drive from ch to bcr site . 1 week 27 cell phone violaters at 3 pm wtf
seasmutt, dont do it while driving, pull over and learn the vehicle. I get new rental cars in Van. for work all the time, I spend 30 min to 1 hour in parking lot just to set it up. we spend more time on our home stereo system then we do on rental or new cars…..sad
Every once in a while, my handsfree doesn’t come on properly and instead of pulling over, turning off my vehicle and re-setting it so it works properly, I just “quickly” use my handset to make a call. On those rare occaizions, I am VERY careful to scan for police cars (further distracting me I suppose). The ghost cars and trucks are brilliant. I could have easily been caught. I will be pulling over to re-set my hands-free unit in the future. Avoiding the $167.00 is plenty of incentive.
People should get a handsfree product like BlueStar 2010 or Parrot
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