Press Release
Ontario’s ban on texting, e-mailing, and using hand-held cellphones and other devices while driving takes effect next Monday (Oct. 26).
It will mark the beginning of a three-month period that will focus on educating drivers about Ontario’s new road rules for hand-held wireless communication and entertainment devices.
Following the education period, police will begin issuing tickets on Feb. 1, 2010.
The new law makes it illegal for drivers to talk, text, type, dial, or e-mail using hand-held cellphones and other hand-held communications and entertainment devices.
The use of hands-free devices still will be permitted.
Police, paramedics, and firefighters will continue to be allowed to use hand-held devices when performing their duties.
As well, all drivers may use hand-held devices to call 9-1-1.
“Our message to drivers is clear: focus on the road, not your cellphone,” said Transportation minister Jim Bradley.
“This is common sense, and starting next week, it is the law in Ontario,” he stressed.
Studies show a driver using a cellphone is four times more likely to be in a crash than a driver focused on the road.
Dialing and texting has been found to carry the highest degree of risk of all cellphone-related activities.
Ontario is joining more than 50 countries worldwide and a growing number of North American jurisdictions that have similar distracted driving legislation, including Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, California, and New York.
Under Ontario’s new law, fines of up to $500 can be levied against distracted drivers who text, type, e-mail, dial, or chat using a prohibited hand-held device.
