THUNDER BAY – Getting caught using your phone while driving will be more expensive in 2019.
Provincial legislative changes that go into effect at the start of the New Year will significantly increase fines for distracted driving, as well as implement demerit point and licence suspension penalties upon conviction.
A first offence will set a driver back $615, along with surcharges and costs, and result in a three-day licence suspension and three demerit points.
The consequences dramatically increase for subsequent infractions, with a second offence fine of up to $2,000 to go along with a one-week licence suspension and six demerit points. Any further offences carry a fine of up to $3,000 with a 30-day driving prohibition and seven demerit points.
Thunder Bay Police Service Traffic Sgt. Gordon Snyder said the enhanced penalties are welcomed.
“All of these collisions are preventable that are caused from this,” Snyder said on Monday, less than 24 hours before the changes take effect.
“By putting these more strict penalties in place it shows the seriousness of the problem and hopefully it makes people think twice about even grabbing their phone to take a look.”
Snyder drew parallels between distracted driving and impaired driving for how they can endanger others on the road.
“You’re driving impaired, putting everybody else out there at risk because of your driving,” Snyder said. “Distracted driving is no different than that. You’re doing a selfish act that again, is putting everybody else out there at risk from you because of your choices in driving distracted.”
One common protest officers hear from drivers caught in the act was that they were just looking at their device and not actively using it at the time. It doesn’t matter, Snyder said, explaining that the driver just needs to have the device in their hand.
“You can’t hold the device while you’re in the operation of your vehicle,” Snyder said. “That doesn’t matter whether you’re stopped or not, as long as you’re on the roadway in operation of your motor vehicle.”
Snyder said the police service intends to aggressively target distracted driving.
In the past, officers have been stationed on city transit and school buses to discretely scout out distracted drivers. Other operations have had officers at construction zones or walk through traffic stopped at intersections to try to catch unsuspecting texting drivers.
“We come up with new and different ways of doing this all the time,” Snyder said, adding traffic unit officers are wearing body cameras through a pilot project, which can provide compelling video evidence if people are caught using their devices.
“We’re going to continue to use new, innovative initiatives in order to target and look for distracted driving. Obviously, we have numerous police vehicles, many of which are unmarked and don’t’ look like typical police vehicles that we use on a day-to-day basis.”
While distracted driving charges are still common, Snyder said most people seem to be getting the message to wait until they reach their destination to check their messages.
“We definitely see a lot less occurrence of this then we once did,” Snyder said. “It was substantially more at one time. We’d see it continually all the time. Now, although we still issue the offence quite a lot, it’s a fraction of what it once was.”
