No more warnings

The time for discussion is over when it comes to using a cell phone while driving, said Thunder Bay Police Services’ traffic Sgt. Glenn Porter.

"The matter of whether cell phones or texting is safe or not has been well discussed," he said. "The legislators have gone and passed the law. It’s time to move on to the enforcement stage."

As of Feb. 1, instead of warnings, police will be handing out $125 tickets to anyone caught using a handheld device while driving.

While the police haven’t tracked exactly how many warnings they’ve given to drivers since the education period began on Oct. 26 last year, Porter said its probably in the hundreds.

"There’s a lot of people who have been reminded," he said, noting it’s often been as simple as a police officer pulling up beside a person talking on their phone and motioning to the driver to hang up.

"That’s actually been kind of funny," Porter said. "I’ve experienced that a number of times."

Personally, Porter said he believes the distracted driving law is long overdue and that Ontario is one of the last governments to recognize the problem and pass the law.

"Distracted driving without a doubt is the leading cause of collisions," he said. "That’s not to say distractions don’t come from a variety of means; cell phones and texting are just one of them."

OPP Const. Diana Cole said over the three-month education period, area OPP officers have handed out 200 warnings and laid six charges.

Cole said studies have shown distracted driving is just as dangerous as impaired driving and that many people have been killed in collisions involving someone talking on a cell phone while driving.

While there was in initial decrease in people using handheld devices while driving after the law passed in October, Cole said there is still a large number of people driving while talking on their phone.

Porter added that with the move to the enforcement stage, people are going to be reminded in a concrete form that using your cell phone on the road is a dangerous behaviour.