Ontario looking at demerit points for distracted drivers
People using their phones as they drive in downtown Toronto last month.
Transportation Minister Glen Murray says a combination of an intense education campaign and demerit points should help turn the tide of deadly distracted driving.
“We are going to be moving in the very near future,” Murray told the Star Tuesday.
MPPs of all political stripes are calling on the government to tack
demerit points on to the $155 fine introduced four years ago for using hand-held devices while driving.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) says motorists talking on cellphones or texting are killing more people on Ontario highways than impaired drivers.
Murray said just as drunk driving became publicly unacceptable through years of education, it is his intention to approach the growing problem of cellphone use and texting while driving in a two-prong way.
“What we learned with drunk driving is that without an education campaign it doesn’t work as well . . . you’ve got to have the authority of law . . . regulations and you’ve got to have a very robust education program,” he said in an interview.
The minister said just as Mothers Against Drunk Drivers led the way on reducing impaired driving he hopes others like Canadian Automobile Association will lead the charge on distracted driving.
“Our drunken driving fatalities are way, way down and it is one of the most successful programs ever run in Canada — we have 50 per cent less than the national average,” he said.
IBC’s Doug DeRabbie told reporters the Insurance Bureau since 2009 has been asking for stiff penalties for distracted driving.
“We have looked at impaired driving versus distracted driving and actually there have been more fatalities recently with respect to distracted drivers as opposed to impaired driving,” DeRabbie said.
He noted that so far this year there have been some 50 fatalities in Ontario compared to 30 caused by impaired driving.
Liberal MPP Bas Balkissoon (Scarborough-Rouge River) currently has a private member’s
bill before the legislature calling for demerits points in addition to increased fines for motorists nabbed for talking or texting on their phones.
“Just about everybody is supportive . . . I would say there is a real groundswell of support for this particular legislation. And it is absolutely needed,” Balkinsoon told Queen’s Park news conference.
Elliott Silverstein, of the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) South Central Region, said later more than 80 per cent of CAA members want to see stronger penalties, including demerit point for distracted driving infractions.
“The result is that people are 23 times more likely to have an accident when they are texting and driving . . . so we need to make some changes to make Ontario’s road even safer,” he told reporters.
Ottawa resident Rick Levesque, who initiated a provincewide petition calling for changes to the Highway Traffic Act to incorporate demerit points, told the news conference that provinces, where such a change has been made, have seen a reduction in distracted driving.
“Somebody needs to do something,” Levesque said.
Tory MPP Jeff Yurek (Elgin-Middlesex-London) said the average time to answer a phone call is 10.6 seconds and if a motorist is driving at 100 km/h that means he or she have covered 294 metres in that time, or three football fields.
“It is therefore no surprise that distracted driving has become the biggest road safety concern in Canada,” Yurek said.
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