THUNDER BAY – If you text while you drive – and you shouldn’t – it might be a good idea today to put down your phone and focus on the road.
Thunder Bay Police say they’ll spend the day taking part in a province-wide campaign to combat distracted driving, as part of the 2019 Drive Safe Campaign, in conjunction with the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police.
While according to police Thunder Bay roadways and in the rest of Ontario are generally among the safest on the continent, distracted driving is still one of the leading factors behind collisions, injuries and deaths on the road.
“Every day, people selfishly get behind the wheel and take their attention away from the road, risking their own lives and the lives of others around them. Those are the drivers we are targeting in this campaign,” said Sgt. Gordon Snyder of the Thunder Bay Police Service’s traffic department.
“Distracted driving comes in many forms and includes reading, eating, using a phone or using GPS. Research has shown that distracted drivers are three times more likely to be in a crash than attentive drivers. Further, a shocking 80 per cent of collisions and 65 per cent of near collisions have some form of driver inattention as a contributing factor.”
For fully licensed drivers, first-time convictions for distracted driving range from $615 to $1,000, three demerit points and a three-day suspension. A third conviction can lead to a fine up to $3,000, six demerit points and a 30-day licence suspension.
Novice drivers face the same fines as those with licences in the A to G category, but instead of losing demerit points, face longer suspension, up to 90 days, and can even have their licence cancelled upon a third conviction, forcing them to go through the graduated licensing system from the beginning.
While the law states that eating and drinking are not considered distracted driving, doing so behind the wheel can result in a careless or dangerous driving charge.
