Distracted driving campaign by Vancouver Police featured a badly damaged SUV covered in cell phones in 2015. Ontario is now raising the fines and penalties for those convicted of causing a death.
Photo Credit: Radio-Canada / Vancouver Police

Distracted driving, attitudes need changing along with laws: advocate

Distracted driving and careless driving are being taken a lot more seriously in the province of Ontario.

According to the provincial government, one person is killed on an Ontario road every 17 hours.

And distracted driving now causes twice as many collisions as it did in 2000.

Yesterday, the province’s Transportation Minister, Stephen Del Duca, announced changes coming to the Highway Traffic Act this fall, that will escalate the charges and penalties for the two offences.

“In these traffic court cases, the penalties are often woefully inadequate,” David Stark said.

He is a member of the advocacy group Friends and Families for Safe Streets.

“still distracted in their vehicles at an alarming rate”

Stark’s wife was hit by a car and killed in 2014 while standing on a Toronto sidewalk. The driver received a $1,000 (Cdn) fine.

With the new legislation the driver could be fined up to $50,000 (Cdn).

For distracted driving, the fines will increase from a maximum of $1,000 to up to $2,000 on a second conviction, and up to $3,000 for third or subsequent incidents, and the addition of six demerit points for multiple offences.

Ontario will have the toughest consequences for repeat distracted driving offences in Canada.

Patrick Brown is the founder of Bike Law Canada, and a member of Friends and Families for Safe Streets, as well as a coalition of cycling and pedestrian advocacy groups moving toward “honourable road-user laws in Ontario”

He says the proposed changes in Ontario are “a step in the right direction”.

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Brown says “more meaningful penalties are being requested by a large number of people in Ontario, in relation to distracted and careless drivers”.

Texting while driving could be eradicated by a ‘textalyzer” law in New York State. © Saul Berenbaum

Many people recognise the changes on roadways.

“The driving public is still using cellphones and are still distracted in their vehicles at an alarming rate, and it’s very difficult for enforcement to catch these people, but the real problem is when they do catch them, you don’t let them walk away with a slap on the wrists, because eventually these individuals can likely kill people.”

Brown says it’s a challenge to prove cell phone use was a factor in an accident or collision.

“Generally, unless you have a witness at the scene that sees the person using the phone at the time, it’s very difficult for law enforcement to get a subpoena in order to access those records”, he says.

A ‘textalyzer’ law

“In a civil context, by the time an order’s granted to access the phone records, generally any type of prosecution’s already been competed, so that is the difficult hurdle.” Brown explains.

New York State is trying to pass a “textalyzer” law, “which would allow law enforcement to use the device to see if somebody had been actually using their phone in the minutes before the crash and that’s something that certainly in Ontario, we’d like to see.”

Brown says the message is not getting through to people about the deadly consequences of cell phone use in cars.

“I think anybody who drives on our roads just simply has to look over at an intersection and they’ll likely see on their way to work, people using their phones constantly, at intersections or in their cars while they’re driving.”

Brown says governments and legislatures could act to make cell phones inoperable in moving vehicles.

“That technology does exist, there’s already apps that are available for phones that does not allow a phone to be used while in motion inside a car. Unfortunately that is discretionary as to whether or not you want the app or not.”

Brown say “many people think that should be mandatory.”

Meanwhile, the neighbouring province of Quebec is watching these developments closely, and changes in that province may follow soon.

With files from CBC and Radio-Canada

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