Number of fines for distracted driving going up every year: ICBC

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The number of people fined for distracted driving in BC has gone up each year since the law came into effect back in 2010, that’s according to statistics from ICBC.

And as a province-wide campaign to crack down wraps up this week, we’re also finding out just how much money the government has made thanks to your bad habits.

Between 2010 and 2014 the province raked in about $36 million.

Vancouver Police Constable Brian Montague says despite repeated messaging and dozens of blitzes over the years — people just won’t put their phones down.

“I don’t know what people aren’t understanding. I think part of it is the fact so many people are addicted to their cellphones, they’re addicted to the need to know and the need to know now. And you don’t have to just look at cars, just go to the local coffee shop and everyone’s face is buried in their smartphone. When their smartphone rings or dings or makes some sort of a noise, there is no hesitation, it’s an immediate grab for the phone to see what’s going on. And if people have that need to know right now then they need to take the phone and throw it in the backseat while they’re driving.”

“We get all kinds of excuses, but we do get a lot of people that fully admit, ‘Yup, I was on my cellphone and I know I’m not supposed to be, but I can’t help myself.’ One of the excuses we hear is, ‘I wasn’t moving in my car, I was just sitting at a red light or a stop sign,’ and I guess I can see the logic behind that to some extent, but your job when you’re behind the wheel is to pay attention and to be prepared for the unexpected,” he explains.

“So, when your head is down at that red light, you’re not watching that pedestrian that is approaching the intersection, you’re not watching that cyclist that is coming up from behind you, and you’re not watching that other driver that is not paying attention to the light cycle. That’s what you should be doing at a red light — not paying attention to your phone,” adds Montague.

He says he’s cautiously optimistic that will people will eventually learn their lesson, but admits it may take a while.

“I compare it sometimes to the old seatbelt laws where it took time for people to understand that not wearing a seatbelt is a poor decision. People don’t realize just how dangerous this behaviour is. They think, ‘I’m just going to look down for a second or two,’ but in a second or two you can travel the length of a football field and the chances of you getting into a collision and hurting somebody are really high.”

“We don’t really see any real trend as to who is doing this, it encompasses all ages. I think there is a feeling out there that this is a young person’s problem, but I can assure you that people in their 30s, 40s and 50s are getting tickets.”

By the end of this month which is also the end of the distracted driving campaign, the VPD expects to have written 2,000 distracted driving tickets.

“So to give it some perspective — if you look back in the first three weeks of March of last year, for example, we wrote about 500 of these tickets. We are three times what we would normally write through this campaign and of course there are people that we’re not catching, yet.”

Remember, if you’re busted, it’s three penalty points and a $167 dollar fine which is one of the lowest in the country. The province is reviewing that amount and says it could go up but it’s not saying when or by how much.

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