York Region Police Ride Public Transit to Spot Distracted Drivers

According to a new report from the CBC, York Region Police (YRP) have started to ride public transit to spot distracted drivers. Sgt. Aaron Sidenberg said that being on a bus provides ‘a very good vantage point’ to spot drivers trying to hide their cellphone use while behind the wheel.

The report notes that a number of Canadian police forces have been riding public transit to catch distracted drivers. People have been finding clever ways to hide their devices while driving, and with the high vantage point on the bus, officers can now spot them. In a statement, Sidenberg said:

“Being on the bus, you have the large windows and being up higher we have a very good vantage point of the drivers and their vehicles. They’re not suspecting that police are on the bus.”

Once a distracted driver has been spotted, the officer on the bus will inform patrollers of which vehicle to pull over. Obviously, officers cannot ticket all of them, but they can definitely increase the number of people they catch using this tactic.

Aside from York Region, other Canadian cities where officers have started using this technique include Thunder Bay, Sudbury, and Quebec City. The number of deaths due to distracted driving has been on the rise, doubling since 2000.