THUNDER BAY -- Distracted driving is being blamed for at least 12 fatal crashes on Ontario roadways this year.
According to statistics provided by the OPP, there have been 51 reported fatal crashes in this province. Distracted driving has been linked to at least a dozen of those incidents.
While none of those 12 crashes have been in the North West Region, Sgt. Shelley Garr said statistics indicate that distracted driving-related fatalities are positioned to surpass impaired driving deaths for the seventh consecutive year.
“People seem to not view using their cell phone or texting the same way they view impaired driving,” Garr said on Wednesday morning.
“The statistics would confirm that. Our numbers for distracted driving are higher than our numbers for impaired driving. What we would like to see is both of those numbers be nil, but what we want people to understand is these are preventable actions.”
From March 14 to 20, the OPP will be conducting their annual distracted driving campaign, which consists of targeted enforcement and enhanced public education.
In the North West Region in 2013, the OPP laid 17 distracted driving charges during the campaign. In 2014, that number jumped to 57 charges.
Garr said one of the ways people can help is to be mindful of the risk distracted driving poses and also to start conversations about the issue.
“It’s not always someone who is in the car alone that is distracted. There are other people who are in the vehicle. We want those people to speak up,” she said.
Of the 12 fatal collisions so far in 2015, the driver found to be driving inattentively died in five of those incidents.
In two incidents it was the driver of the other vehicle who was driving properly who died and three of the collisions involved a pedestrian being struck.
The ages of the deceased ranged from 33 to 88 years old.
