Langley RCMP Issue $15,000 in Distracted Driving Fines and Penalties in 5 Hours

RCMP in Langley, British Columbia, announced this week distracted driving remains a real problem on Lower Mainland streets, as Provincial Distracted Driving Enforcement Day on March 3, resulted in over $15,000 in fines and penalties in five hours.

Langley Traffic Services said two separate operations spent five hours on a distracted driving blitz, at Highway 10 at Glover Road and 64 Avenue at 200 Street. The RCMP utilized an undercover officer on foot and another on a bicycle to catch drivers using their cellphones while driving their vehicles.

The five hour distracted driving blitz resulted in 27 violation tickets for distracted drivers, with over $15,000 in fines and penalties.



According to Langley RCMP, none of the violation tickets were the result of an accident, but the “potential for disaster was very real,” citing how about 1 in 4 fatal crashes on roads in the province are related to driver distraction.

In B.C., your first distracted driving ticket results in a $368 fine, along with four driver demerit points on your driving record. Drivers with four demerits or higher at the end of a 12-month period need to pay a penalty point premium, which begins at $252 and increases with every additional demerit point accumulated, with a chance of paying an additional driver risk premium.

Apple launched Do Not Disturb While Driving in iOS 11 and it aims to help curb distracted driving, preventing messages, calls and notifications from appearing while you’re detected driving or when your iPhone is connected to CarPlay.