RCMP Aim To Hammer Home Message: Leave Your Phone Alone While Driving
courtesy ICBC
Prince George, BC – If you’re texting while driving, you might miss the highly visible, “Not While Driving” signs going up around the city as RCMP launch another Distracted Driving campaign…
“It is astonishing how many people continue to use their devices while driving,” says Sergeant Matt LaBelle, the officer in charge of the Detachment’s Municipal Traffic Services Section.
LaBelle says there are no messages or conversations important enough to endanger yourself, your loved ones, or others on the road. “We will continue to target those people until they get the message that it is not acceptable.”
As part of the road safety initiative, he says Citizens on Patrol volunteers will also be out observing offenders throughout the community and providing messaging to drivers from now until the middle of October.
The initiative is part of ICBC’s Hang-Up Project. Road Safety Coordinator, Doug MacDonald, says, “You’re five times more likely to crash if you’re using your phone, so, when you’re behind the wheel, stay focused.”
This past June, the fines for Distracted Driving in BC more than doubled – the total fine, with penalty points, is now $543 for a first offence and $888 for a second offence.
Comments
There is no doubt texting or checking e-mails while driving is distracting and quite frankly just plain stupid. I am curious to know though what the difference is between checking an e-mail or sending a quick text on a 3×6 inch electronic device while stopped at a red light or reading the 15×20 foot hi-def electronic billboards that are strategically placed at intersections in cities everywhere?
but I see the police texting, looking at their phones etc all the time when driving. Don’t give me this crap about they have an ‘excuse’. They have radios, they are not ‘professional’ drivers that should be able to use phones while driving. I know for a fact they are txt’ing friends and family like everyone else.
It is hard to take the authorities seriously when they are guilty of the same behaviours like everyone else. They need to clean up their messy habits too.
Texting and driving is plain stupid.
I watched a young lady drive into the back of a cement truck in stop and go traffic on the “Port Mann Bridge” in Vancouver a couple of years ago. There she was texting away in her car in the lane beside me and drove right into the back of the truck. Very luckily she wasn’t injured.
This past August my wife and I were in Vancouver again for a few days walking in Yaletown when my wife pushed me aside at a cross walk because another young lady had driven up on curb and almost creamed me in her car. In plain site was her cell phone in her hand on the steering wheel.
Anybody that thinks this is something they can safely get away with is honestly a moron. Anybody who tries to defend it is an idiot and has no common sense.
Since this is quickly overtaking drunk driving as the leading cause of road fatalities I’d say that there’s no excuse. Period. You always have time to pull off to the side of the road to deal with your phone if necessary.
Would any of you be happy watching everyone drive around with beers or open bottle of liquor in their cup holders?
I’m all for the law and honestly think it should be stricter than it is and I see too many drivers at every intersection almost daily with their phones out. I honestly hope they all get nailed with a fine.
Texting at intersections means a loss of situational awareness.
Police use cells as part of the job, some people just don’t understand.
Fact and fiction are sometimes confused with rumour, innuendo.
Police may use cells as part of their job but the research is very clear, there is only so much the human brain can do at one time when doing such things as talking on a cell phone and driving. I don’t think a policeman’s brain is any different so they are just as much as hazard as anyone else using a cellphone while driving.
Bullcrap. There is no excuse to txt at an intersection for the RCMP. They have radios, end of story. I use a cell as part of my job, so can I txt too? Maybe I’m on my way to court, and I need to txt my client? Lets see how that goes.
One is legal and one is illegal, I don’t make the Rules , I just obey the Rules of the Road and I don’t worry what the Police does in there Cars.
You may care if a police car T-bones you or a loved one at an intersection because the driver was distracted by their hand held electronic device.
I can see the traffic over top of 97 north and look down at how many people still use there Cell phone. Amazing amounts
Why has this turned into a conversation about whether cops can text and citizens can’t? The issue is that the laws have been on the books for quite some time now and I would be hard pressed to drive 2 blocks in this town and not see someone texting while driving. This isn’t a case of seeing someone breaking the law once in a while. It’s every time I go out. It’s actually ridiculous.
I really don’t care if cops are on laptops, cell phones or 2 empty soup cans and a piece of string.
I followed a pickup truck on Foothills a few months ago. It was a company truck clearly marked with decals and logos and the guy was rolling down Foothills in the left lane heading up to the Hart. I looked at the logos and the one on the back stated that this was the company’s safety truck and I assume driven by the guy in charge of safety for the company. I followed him from Foothills and the bridge up to North Nechako Road. We both turned left onto North Nechako where he continued to yak on his phone and look at the screen. ALl over the road and about 15K under the speed limit. That guy should have been fired from his job. If he is the safety guy, that company is in trouble.
I agree with you and this really is an epidemic and people have to get their act together over this issue.
Cops, all ERT’s, I really don’t care about them either. I don’t do that job so I’m not going to make assumptions on them. Their allowed within the law and for now I can live with that.
I was at the intersection of Ferry and Westwood last week and a middle aged woman texting in a mini van with kids to my left and a middle age guy with phone to his ear (who looked white collar)in a silver BMW X5 to my right. Both didn’t seem to care less. Both in a school zone around 430 pm.
I wanted to take a picture of them, but then I would have been just as guilty.
I think shaming publicly is the way to deal with most of these jerks.
If you see them and can get a picture do it and post it on social media.
I am going to drive around with a carton of eggs and throw one at every single vehicle I see with a driver using their cell phone. i can bet that carton will only last 10 blocks.
I don’t think you’ll get 10 blocks. I do like the idea though.
Good idea but, be careful. Throwing eggs at Cell Phone offenders might be construed as distracting.
Cops are not the problem people on thier phones are. Someone said police are not profesional drivers??? They drive the majority of thier working day and have driver training on very advanced skills taught by highly experienced trainers on a closed course.
I am sick of people craping on the cops. They have a tough job and to top it off they get to deal with a good percentage of arogant civilians who think they are not the bad guy. Because talking on thier phone or doing a california stop or doing 50 through a school zone is not that bad. All these not bad things can kill or permenetly change an inocent persons life.
Comments for this article are closed.