The Toronto Police Service (TPS) has kicked off a new distracted driving campaign today, with the tagline “That Text Or Call Could End It All”. The goal is to reduce the use of handheld devices while driving and police will be out in full force from February 19-28, 2018.
The goal of this campaign is to raise awareness through education and enforcement regarding the dangers of distracted driving. According to a press release, “officers will focus their attention on those drivers who choose to drive while distracted.”
Distracted driving includes “any action that a driver engages in that takes their focus away from the safe operation of their vehicle, which includes, but is not limited to, the use of hand-held communication and entertainment devices.”
The TPS says since 2010, when distracted driving laws came into effect in Ontario, roughly 120,000 tickets have been used. According to 2016 collision statistics, 7,435 of 70,004 crashes reported to the TPS involved at least one “inattentive driver”.
According to the province of Ontario, if a driver is convicted of distracted driving, they will receive:
The Toronto Police Service says this new distracted driving campaign is part of the City of Toronto—Vision Zero Road Safety Plan.
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I don’t take their efforts seriously since hands-free calling remains legal while driving. More than 30 studies have shown hands-free devices are no safer than handheld as the brain remains distracted by the cell phone conversation.
If you don’t believe that, think of it this way – try driving while pretending to hold a phone up to your ear. Does that make it hard to drive? Maybe a little, but not much. A lot of people drive with one hand anyway, so it doesn’t matter much where you’re holding your other hand. What makes distracted driving dangerous is the focussing on the conversation itself – hands free or not.
Using your phone, like for typing or texting, is considered extremely dangerous by some. More than just talking on the phone etc.
My take on it is that one might be slightly worse than the other – but the big point is that they are BOTH extremely dangerous BECAUSE YOU ARE DISTRACTED. Not because of where your hands are. Either one is about as dangerous as drunk driving. It might not be intuitive, but DISTRACTION is far worse than people think.