Duane Hicks
The local OPP is being asked to keep distracted driving as one of its top priorities when it comes to enforcement.
The OPP is in the process of gathering input for its 2014-16 business plan and during this morning’s Police Services Board meeting, chair John McTaggart said it needs to be a prominent policing issue both in town and across the district.
“There isn’t a day that goes by, that I’m on the road, and I don’t see someone with a cellphone or someone [texting],” he noted.
“It’s something I feel very strongly about.”
Coun. Rick Wiedenhoeft, who recently attended the Ontario Association of Police Service Boards Zone 1 meeting in Thunder Bay, noted one of the presenters there indicated distracted driving is almost tied with impaired driving as the cause of fatal motor vehicle collisions, and is especially a problem among young graduated drivers.
The presenter also said there is a need to examine the exemption from on-duty police officers being able to use cellphones/handsets for work purposes while driving.
OASPSB Zone 1 passed a resolution at that meeting to petition the provincial government to implement a loss of demerit point system for motorists charged with distracted driving.
Currently, drivers face a $155 fine but no loss of demerit points.
OPP Insp. Steve Shouldice noted distracted driving has not been directly connected with any motor vehicle collisions locally.
It appears drivers who have been breaking the law in terms of distracted driving are doing it at slow speeds or at stop signs, which are illegal but have not resulted in collisions.
At this point, types of collisions in Rainy River District tend to be with animals, in parking lots, or at intersections in Fort Frances.
Insp. Shouldice admitted catching people in the act of talking on their cellphone or texting can be difficult.
For instance, drivers can see officers’ black-and-white cruisers six blocks away and stop what they’re doing.
Likewise, if a driver is holding their phone low, it’s hard to see that from outside the vehicle and thus difficult for an officer to prove the driver was using the device.
“There’s a high threshold of proof required,” Insp. Shouldice noted.
However, he said police do have plans to alter their strategy to nab more distracted drivers, such as using unmarked vehicles and having officers on street corners who will spot distracted drivers and then radio ahead for a cruiser to intercept them.
McTaggart noted he read a newspaper article about an officer who would ride on a city bus, spot distracted drivers from the heightened vantage-point the bus provided, and then radio ahead for officers in cruisers to pull over the offenders.
In other news, it was noted this morning that several district officers received awards at the North West Region awards lunch Sept. 26.
Retired Sgts. Phil Donald and Darryl Wright received 30-Year Long-Service and Good Conduct bars.
Insp. Steve Shouldice, S/Sgt. Scott Gobeil, and Csts. Kevin Orchard, Elaine Barr, Doug Irish, Rob Armstrong, and Russ Desserre, meanwhile, all got their Quarter-Century Pins as members of the Ontario Public Service.
D/Cst. Chuck MacDonald and Cst. Anne McCoy received 20-Year Long-Service and Good Conduct medals.
