Those caught distracted driving will not have their phones confiscated

VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) – The province has put the question to you: what’s the next step in getting drivers to actually put down their phones and other distractions while behind the wheel?

It has been one week since the province began a public consultation process asking for your input on sanctions, fines and other penalties for anyone caught breaking the law. Since the consultation began, there have been over 1,000 comments left and people’s opinions, it seems, really sways both ways.

Some drivers say there shouldn’t be any enforcement at intersections or when cars aren’t moving, but others are calling for exorbitant fines and vehicles being impounded for anyone caught texting and driving.

A common thread is to hit those who text where it hurts and to confiscate their phone if they’re caught, but Justice Minister Suzanne Anton says that’s not going to happen.

“We are not going to confiscate the phones. I understand the sentiment, but there are a number of real issues with that and we think that would probably be going one step too far. So, we won’t be doing that, but it is the other kinds of penalties that we’re looking at right now and very interested in people’s feedback.”

So, if what the provincial government is considering are higher fines, then how high could they go given the ones in BC are the second lowest in the entire country.

“What’s the right penalty for a first offence? Which I don’t think needs to be hugely high, but probably higher than where we are. But if you have a second or third offence, should it start to escalate? That’s the question we’re interested in. The problem we’re trying to solve, of course, is that distracted driving is a very serious problem on British Columbia highways and everyone knows the person next to them on the cellphone is just not paying attention.”

“It is the second leading cause of death: distracted driving on highways with 88 deaths on our highways last year for people who were not paying enough attention when they were driving. So, we’ve got ambitious goals on highway safety and we need to really tackle this problem,” adds Anton.

You have until July 16th to give the province your opinion.

Police expectations about drivers who consistently break the law

Do you follow the rules of the road every time you get behind the wheel?

Vancouver Police, for example, will never explicitly tell you it’s OK to break the law, but there is a certain level of discretion officers use at all times.

“Because literally if we wrote tickets for every offence that we observed, we wouldn’t make it 10 blocks from the police station before having to return before the end of the shift. So, we provide some leeway,” explains Constable Brian Montague.

“We’re constantly reminding people to follow the rules of the road because if people did follow the rules of the road, we’d have far fewer collisions — we’d have far fewer fatalities.”

But even Montague, who has been a police officer for over 20 years, acknowledges it’s near impossible to follow all the rules, all the time.

“It can be very challenging because there are distractions that pop up out there and there are circumstances that are out of your control.”

“When it comes to speeding, for example, we’re not going to be writing tickets for someone doing 52 km/h, 53 km/h or 54 km/h — it’s just not reasonable for our officers to do that.”

He adds they mainly look for habits that are hazardous on our roads.