If you鈥檙e reading this on your phone as you drive, we need to talk. Once you鈥檙e off the road, that is. Distracted driving is a serious problem. It can annoy other drivers, who have to watch out for the distracted ones. Much worse, it can cause accidents, serious injuries and even death.
Distracted driving comes in many forms, including eating, drinking, smoking, applying makeup, fiddling with the stereo, making phone calls, sending and reading text messages, and more. Basically, anything that takes a driver鈥檚 attention away from the task at hand is a distraction.
Drivers who are paying attention are put at risk by the distracted ones, but help might be on the way.
Justice Minister Suzanne Anton says the provincial government is considering impounding the vehicles of drivers caught texting or talking on cellphones while behind the wheel, and is looking at stiffer fines and licence suspensions for distracted drivers.
These suspensions would be similar to the immediate roadside prohibitions given to impaired drivers, she said.
The government has been asking for public opinions about distracted driving at gov.bc.ca/distracteddriving. Anton says most people visiting the site think that the $167 fine for distracted driving is too low.
(In the interest of fairness, it should be noted that people who don鈥檛 think distracted driving is an issue are probably not taking the time to check out the site 鈥� and if they did, they would not be lobbying for higher fines.)
How high should the fines go? Ontario is raising its maximum penalty for distracted driving to $1,000. That might be a number for sa国际传媒 to consider, since the penalty has to be high enough to serve as a deterrent. For many people, $167 is so low, it鈥檚 a risk worth taking. A fine might be just fine with them.
One quick solution might be to take away the offending phone, but these devices are cheap and easy to replace. Losing a phone would be a speed bump, not a barrier to prevent further abuse.
Besides, phones are not the only problem. What if someone is seen starting a fire while driving? Could the police take away the pack of smokes, or the cigarette lighter?
The only way to get attention might be to take away the wheels.
Impounding a vehicle might be too harsh a penalty for a first offence, but it would make sense for subsequent infractions. On the second offence, a one-day impoundment might work, and if there is a third offence, the slow learner should lose the vehicle for a week.
Eventually, the message might get through, and our roads will become safer. That would be good, since the Insurance Corporation of sa国际传媒 says that an average of 12 people are killed on Vancouver Island every year in distracted driving-related crashes.
The government is looking for your point of view. If you go to the distracted-driving website in the next two weeks, you will have a chance to help shape public policy.
It鈥檚 time to end the danger, and that starts with reducing the risk.
