Drivers calling home in the new year to ask whether to buy 1% or 2% milk should just gamble and make a decision for themselves.
That’s because starting January 1, tough new penalties aimed at tackling distracted driving take effect, just two weeks after the province introduced stricter impaired driving charges.
Orillia OPP Const. Martin Hill said the new regulations are needed to curb what has become a growing problem on the province’s streets and highways.
“It’s pretty serious when you’re talking about 83 deaths,” Hill said, referring to the number of road deaths officially attributed to distracted driving in Ontario last year.
While 2018 figures aren’t yet available, the 83-death figure is likely higher since police may not have been able to definitively attribute an incident to distracted driving.
But while most people think of cellphone use through talking and texting as the main culprit of distracted driving, Hill said there’s a whole range of other behaviours that take a driver’s focus off the blacktop.
And just like the Simpsons accurately predicted Donald Trump’s ascension to the White House, so, too, did the writers predict the full effect of distracted driving with an episode featuring Homer using an array of ‘car’ appliances, including a microwave, while driving.
While Hill didn’t have any specific Homerish anecdotes relating to what officers have seen while patrolling area roads, he noted the local detachment enforces distracted driving all the time and have encountered those who’ve been reading newspapers and watching movies whilst behind the wheel.
“We do have focussed patrols,” he said. “We’re getting the issue out there. I’m hoping the new regulations have a positive effect with people putting down their phones and paying attention to the road.”
Any activity that takes one’s focus off the road while driving could land that person a $1,000 fine on your first conviction, a three-day driver’s licence suspension and three demerit points.
A second and third conviction will see those penalties double up to a $2,000 and $3,000 fine respectively, along with six demerit points, and a seven-day driving suspension on a second conviction within five years and a 30-day suspension for a third and more convictions within five years.
But besides the new penalties, the province has introduced an expanded definition of the driving behaviour that government statistics show are responsible for one person being injured every half hour in distracted-driving collisions in Ontario.
And while cellphones are still seen as the biggest and most obvious distraction driving culprit, they’re not the only thing that falls under the realm of distracted driving.
Hill said eating and personal grooming continues to be an issue since those looking at a vanity mirror or tying their hair while steering with their knees aren’t fully attentive when driving.
He added: “We’re encouraging everyone, including passengers, to speak up when they see distracted driving.”
From a legal perspective, if a person’s distracted driving causes an accident that results in serious injury, he or she could be sued by the innocent victim, personal injury lawyers Michael Kelly and Sabrina Singh write in an article on the subject.
“Usually, a conviction for this type of an offence will be considered strong evidence that you are at fault for the accident in any such lawsuit, as well,” the partners say.
The Transportation Ministry’s new road safety rules were included under the December 2017 provincial government legislation to regulate the sale of recreational cannabis, known as the Cannabis, Smoke-Free Ontario and Road Safety Statute Law Amendment Act.
The tougher distracted driving regulations follow the province’s move in mid-December to increase penalties for impaired driving, another move Hill hopes will make Ontario roads safer.
Considered the most significant Criminal Code transportation offences reform in 40 years, the move gives police services the constitutional authority to demand a roadside breath sample from drivers — even without reasonable suspicion that the driver had consumed alcohol.
Among other things, the new law also raises the maximum penalty to life imprisonment for dangerous driving causing death, up from a maximum of 14 years, broadening the driving “over 80” definition to “at or over 80” within two hours of driving to eliminate legal defences that reward risky behaviours and make it harder to enforce drinking and driving laws, and mandatory fine increases for first offenders.
Mandatory alcohol screening has been shown to be an effective deterrent, as well as being effective at detecting alcohol-impaired drivers, Canada’s justice department said. For instance, about 50 per cent of drivers who are on the roads above the legal limit are not detected during R.I.D.E. and routine stop checks, the research suggests.
Canada joins about 40 countries worldwide that have authorized local police forces to demand roadside breath samples, including Australia, New Zealand, Finland, France, Sweden, and Ireland. Irish authorities reported a 23 per cent reduction in the number of people killed in alcohol-fuelled collisions on its roads within the first year of launching the program in 2006.
-with files from Village Media
