Skip to content

Text and drive; pay the price

Do you text and drive? Do you talk on your hand-held phone and drive? If you habitually do these things or engage in any other activities that take your mind off the task at hand, chances are good you will eventually pay the price, in the form of a t
smartphone

Do you text and drive? Do you talk on your hand-held phone and drive? If you habitually do these things or engage in any other activities that take your mind off the task at hand, chances are good you will eventually pay the price, in the form of a ticket or a crash.
According to SGI, police are ridiculously good at catching distracted drivers. In a March blitz dubbed Operation Bus Cop, police agencies set a traffic safety spotlight record for distracted driving with 711 offences cited that month. Of those 583 were cellphone tickets.
Police agencies used a variety of tactics — cruising through traffic in unmarked SUVs, positioning plainclothes officers on sidewalks and watching from elevated vantage points overlooking busy thoroughfares.
It’s a safe bet that each of those 711 people would have rather spent $280 on something other than a ticket. The fine also carries four demerit points and a potential one-week vehicle impoundment for a second cellphone ticket in a year.
Those are high prices to pay, but the cost could be higher. In 2016, distracted driving was a factor in nearly 8,300 collisions contributing to the deaths of 42 people and more than 1,200 injuries.