Using Phones and Not Using Seatbelts
Prince George, B.C.- The first week of the distracted driving campaign in the Prince George area has resulted in a number of drivers being ticketed.
During the first week of the month long campaign, Prince George Regional Traffic Services and the Prince George Integrated Road Safety Unit have focused their enforcement action at the campaign initiatives.
In the first seven days police issued 36 Distracted Driving (cell phone) violations and 31 Seatbelt Violations. Police also issued 32 other various motor vehicle act violations.
Distracted Driving has surpassed Impaired Driving to become the second leading cause of car crashes in British Columbia and contributes to an average of 81 deaths in crashes every year in the province.
If you need to make a call or text , pull over and park your car. It is illegal to use your device at red lights and stop signs.
You must be pulled off the travel portion of the roadway and parked.
Distracted Driving carries a $368 fine with 4 demerit points. The fine, coupled with the ICBC Driver Penalty Point Premium of $175, pushes the financial penalty of distracted driving to $543. The fine for failing to
wear a seat belt is $167.00
Comments
Keep the good work up there ladies and gentlemen, still a lot of nimrods on the road that figure they are legends in their own mind and continue to be a hazard on the roads! Hit them fast and hit them hard!
Only 36 cell phone violations in 7 days? I could hand out that many in one day! But in fairness people are more apt to hide their phone when they see a police car.
make the penalties harsher, much harsher….put a 1 in front of all the fines to start.
I say confiscate their phone on the spot, the person can then explain to a judge why they should get it back. The police tow vehicles of impaired drivers, if distracted driving has surpassed impaired driving then why not?
you can buy a new phone for about what the fines are now….
but losing their phone as well is a great idea.
Would love to see driver’s license suspended as well.. you need it for work? TOUGH, you should have thought of that before using your phone while driving.
You get a fine if any electronic device is in your hand period, don’t have to be using it. iPod, cell phone, camera.. but you can hold a brush, comb, coffee mug, wallet, burger… as long as it isn’t electronic
You can also drive around with your dog, or dogs on your lap seemingly with impunity!
Distracted driving comes in many forms! It’s too bad that the police and ICBC only focus on the politically incorrect forms!
How about a 24 hour suspension and tow to the impound on top of the fines? That will make people think really hard if they know their car and license are taken away for a day.
Place the phone on the ground and make the offender drive over it a dozen times. :)
All of you make great suggestions on what should be done, and what else is also distracted driving, but you miss one important point. The government’s objective is to collect revenue, not actually stop the bad behavior.
If they were to impound the vehicle, the police officer would have to stay with it until the tow truck showed up, there’d be at least an hour of arguing with the driver who’d like refuse to get out of the car, an arrest, and a constable off the streets for the rest of the day – and no extra money to the government.
If you try to take the phone, again, all sorts of issues as the person refuses to hand it over claiming there’s privileged communication on it with their lawyer, and various other ridiculous excuses. And then there’s the risk after you take their phone, they get a call for that job they’ve been hoping for and miss it, so they decide to sue.
Under this system, same constable can write a dozen tickets, bring in $5,000.00 – and no fuss, no muss. But it will never stop the behavior because the probability of getting caught is so low, people just feel they’ll get away with it.
And consider the RCMP are undermanned as it is, just how much resources can you allocate to this issue.
Yup. You nailed it, ski.
While what you say is likely what would happen , I say too bad . It’s really no different then DUI , you have a right to drink just as you have a right to use a cell phone , just not while driving .
The government’s objective is to collect revenue, not actually stop the bad behavior. Probably the reason they don’t give police a higher budget.
All good points, Ski.
IMO! treat the distracted offence the same as a DUI! gives the RCMP the same rights to treat the offence the same as someone impaired. When will people wake up!
Who still drives around without a seatbelt on? Maybe they believe they’ll be ‘thrown clear’ in an accident. Lol.
Well, see, they don’t wanna get all banged up in the car, better to be thrown clear and dead than all banged up LOL!
The amount of texting while driving is very evident at every stop light. Agree that the phone be taken away when caught, pick it up the next day at police station . What about the GPS ? In dash or on dash huge distraction to a driver who’s eyes should be on the road . While I’m bitching about new vehicles , how did all these fancy new headlights get passed by the DOT ? Some of them are terribly glaring .
How about the easy nab ones, All vehicle head lights should have maximum lumens at 150 ft. Color of light should also be taken into consideration.
height of light is another concern, should have max heights.
Vehicle manufacturers have been pushing the envelope.
Agree 100% about the headlights
$368 is a ridiculously low fine when you consider the very minor infraction of forgetting to renew your DL gets you roughly the same fine. How can something so minor as forgetting to renew a DL be considered on the same level as the second leading cause of road deaths? It isn’t like you all of a sudden forget how to drive just because you didn’t make it to the motor vehicle branch to renew your DL before your birthday. Should be $1000 fine minimum for cell phone usage.
Lets keep in mind that just because you are involved in an accident while you were using your phone does not mean that you were the cause of the accident. It is the responsibility of the police to determine the cause of the accident and lay the appropriate charges. When there is no accident involved they usually just issue you a ticket for using a cell phone while driving.
While the statistics show that the number of deaths due to distracted driving are very close or exceed DUI they do not give any indication as to how many people were actually charged.
It seems that we have lower charges ie; point 0.5 as opposed to 0.8 and talking on a phone as opposed to driving without due care and attention or dangerous driving.
My guess is that the lower charges allow us to avoid going to court, and reduces the overall costs, while increasing revenue.
Just ask to bring your Permit to the Station Tomorrow and you can pick it up next Month, this will fix this Cell Phone Problem the easy way.
I totally agree. Take either the cell phone or the car. The offending driver can decide which is more important to them.
Google distracted driving accidents and you will find they lump in cell phone use as causing 25% of car accidents. Texting is like 90% of the problem, not just yaking on the phone.
And by the way all you above regarding the punishment for distracted driving,
check out the slap on the wrist sentencing in PG for trafficking in meth or heroin.
Makes we want to puke given what the courts and crown counsels here do for the gangsters.
How bout being able to call in the plates of the driver with their phone stuck to the side of their head? You can call someone in who passes a transport truck on a double solid and they’ll get ticketed. I’m embarrassed to say I know someone this happened to. It was even disputed in court and the ticket still had to be payed.
I pass the same 5 idiots on the way to and from work in the morning talking on their phones. They never get caught.
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