Tuesday, 14 October 2014

Do the new distracted driving laws go far enough?

Laws coming in this month will see drivers getting three penalty points for getting caught talking on a cell phone while driving.

Constable Ian MacDonald with the Abbotsford police says he’s in favour of the move to points, although he says it’s clear the message is not getting out there yet, judging by what they see in roadside checks.

“We run out of tickets before we run out of volunteers to receive tickets and so obviously not everybody out there is taking it seriously enough despite the fact that it is causing carnage and injury on our roadway,” he explains.

MacDonald worries that enough isn’t being done to make people put down their phones. “Collectively we recognize that we need to do more and when I say we I don’t just mean law enforcement. We as citizens in this province need to do more because obviously the message isn’t getting out there effectively enough.”

He says so far this year his officers have handed out more than 1400 distracted driving tickets and says they’ll probably hit 2000 by the end of the year.

The points come into effect on October 20th, meaning anyone with more than three will have to pay at least $175 extra on their insurance.

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