The number of incidents caused by distracted driving increased 37% in the first quarter of this year, despite efforts from the police to raise awareness (via GlobalNews).
According to the city’s quarterly traffic services documents, officers handed out 1,840 tickets to distracted drivers from January to the end of March, up from 1,345 in the same period a year prior.
“When you are driving a motor vehicle, you essentially have control of a two- to three-thousand-pound missile” Const. Clint Stibbe from Toronto Traffic Services told AM 640. “If you don’t have control over that at all times, the devastation can be tremendous.”
As Const. Clint Stibbe from Toronto Traffic Services points out, every sign points to a higher number of incidents caused by distracted driving this year than last year. The lowest number of tickets was around 12,000 per year, but that was a couple years ago, Stibbe says. Last year was around the 15,000 mark, Stibbe added.
But, as you might know, a distracted driving ticket is a luxury “item” you might want to skip, resulting in a $490 fine and three demerit points. Plus, novice drivers would see their driving license suspended for 30 days on a first offence and 60 days for a second offence. A third means their licence will be cancelled.
As for the impaired driving incidents, the report showed that alcohol-impairment arrests dropped 11 percent. However, there was an 8 percent increase in drug-impaired arrests year over year.
