THUNDER BAY — It’s no secret that distracted driving related to cell phone use is on the rise, but Thunder Bay police say even they were surprised at the scale of the problem while carrying out a targeted enforcement blitz last week.
“The numbers were far more than we expected,” said Tom Armstrong, the Thunder Bay Police Service's acting traffic sergeant. “It’s a very concerning trend… When you’re not watching the road, terrible things can happen.”
Police issued 123 fines for distracted driving over four days last week, amounting to nearly $75,000 in total.
It’s a result the police service called “extraordinary,” especially considering efforts were scaled back due to a snowstorm.
Last week’s blitz was part of a larger enforcement campaign the force is launching throughout April, known as distracted driving awareness month, and beyond.
The police service's traffic unit will employ “creative strategies” as part of that campaign, with officers using unmarked vehicles, a pickup truck, and even a city bus in an effort to catch drivers unaware. The bus was provided through a partnership with Thunder Bay Transit, and not operating on a regular route.
“We tried to employ some creative strategies,” said Armstrong. “To be honest, it sometimes can be a challenging thing to enforce — you know, if someone sees a marked police car, they’re going to put their phone down.”
“The idea is we’re trying different strategies and being creative, and we’re going to continue to do so, [and] maybe people will be a little more guarded about who’s watching.”
Distracted driving has become one of the leading causes of fatal collisions, the police force noted, even beginning to surpass impaired driving, according to a 2019 report from the Traffic Injury Research Foundation.
Mobile phone use was estimated to lead to 1.6 million collisions in Canada in 2019, according to the National Safety Council.
Still, it’s a behaviour that remains common. In a 2021 CAA poll, 47 per cent of respondents admitted they have used their phones to send messages while driving.
In addition to expanded enforcement, the police service launched a new social media awareness campaign this month emphasizing the financial consequences for those caught driving distracted.
That includes a $615 fine, a $281 licence reinstatement fee after a three-day licence suspension, and potential insurance adjustments of $1,400 to $3,500 annually — figures the police service says it developed by speaking with insurance agencies.
The force highlighted those numbers in a video released this month.
Armstrong said the force is also looking to tackle behaviour that doesn’t fall under distracted driving legislation, which focuses on the use of electronic devices.
“Last week, we saw some – to be honest, some ridiculous things,” he said. “We saw people shuffling stacks of paper and reading through them, I was beside somebody for several blocks reading the manual for some sort of equipment on the steering wheel, somebody driving around eating a salad.”
