In the North Central region alone, an average of 13 people are killed each year as a result of distracted driving-related crashes.
In fact, distracted driving is responsible for one in every four fatalities on BC roadways.
Crashes reached a record high in 2017, with many of these caused by distracted or inattentive driving. While cellphone usage rightly gets a lot of the attention, distracted driving includes any activity that impacts your ability to focus on the road while in control of a vehicle.
The provincial government, police, as well as ICBC, conduct two distracted driving education and enhanced enforcement campaigns each year. With the campaigns comes advertising and social media support.
According to ICBC, research shows that taking your eyes off the road for as little as two seconds is strongly correlated with crashing.
As a result, this month, drivers will be hearing one message — take a break from your phone when you’re behind the wheel.
ICBC’s Doug Macdonald told MyPGNow that fines start at $368 and four demerit points.
“That can add up because those people who don’t get the message those dollar figures go up from there,” he said. “It’s one of those things where we have to change our behaviour. We don’t see it as something as important as, for example, impaired driving or speed, but it is.”
Enhanced police enforcement of distracted driving will take place across the province including a province-wide blitz on Friday, and community volunteers are setting up Cell Watch deployments to remind drivers to leave their phone alone when driving.
As part of the commitment to make roads safer, ICBC is currently inviting eligible drivers in a telematics pilot project. The goal is to determine whether using this technology can improve road safety and driving behaviour for inexperienced drivers in BC.
Police data collected from 2013 to 2017 indicate that an average of 77 people’s lives are claimed each year from incidents where distracted driving is a contributing factor.
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