Most of us have been there at one time or another. Following another car that is weaving slightly, and wondering if the driver is drunk before realizing they are holding a cell phone up to their ear.
If that’s not enough to convince you that using a cell phone while driving is a bad idea, you’ve probably heard about phone messages suddenly cut off as a cell phone user dies in a fiery crash.
The Province of B.C. recently made a move to curb cell phone use by drivers — the RCMP refer to it as distracted driving — by raising the penalties starting June 1. A first offence will cost $543: $368 for the ticket, plus four penalty points, triggering another $175 charge.
A second offence in the same year will not only cost the driver even more money, it triggers a review of your driving habits by the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles.
Those are some pretty stiff penalties. But is it enough to convince diehard cellphone users that maybe their driving skills while talking on a cell phone aren’t as good as they think they are?
If we consider the case of a Richmond driver who managed to rack up 13 tickets before losing her licence, probably not. Automatic driver licence suspensions with length linked to number of offences might be a more effective deterrent.
At the very least, it would make the roads safer for the rest of us by getting dangerous drivers off the road.
While we might quibble with the RCMP definition of distracted driving, which stretches to adjusting the volume on the radio and talking to your passenger, there is no doubt that using a cell phone or worse, texting, takes your attention away from driving, and too often, it is a fatal mistake.