It is time to hang up before starting up, as the province’s new distracted driving legislation comes into force this week.
Starting Thursday drivers caught behind the wheel using hand-held cellphones to talk or text face a $172 fine.
Cpl. Don Murray, head of the St. Albert RCMP detachment’s traffic section, said local officers don’t have any targeted operations planned, but they will be looking for distracted drivers.
“We do various seatbelt and speed operations around town and it only stands to reason that if you are speeding and not wearing your seatbelt and if you are also talking on the cellphone you could be liable to three different fines,” Murray said.
The new law focuses on more than just cellphones. Shaving, brushing your teeth or applying make-up are now illegal, as is reading printed material.
Eating a snack is acceptable, but not something more substantial and drivers are permitted to have a GPS in their vehicles, but they cannot input addresses or otherwise interact with the machine while behind the wheel.
Murray said his officers will be looking for people breaking the law and they will not wait to see drivers swerving or driving erratically because of distractions.
“Whether you are swerving or not, the evidence is pretty clear that talking on the phone and driving is distracted driving,” he said.
Murray said the detachment focuses on driving behaviour that either leads to collisions or makes those collisions more serious; like speeding, failing to wear a seatbelt and impaired driving.
“Our main mandate here is to lower the major injury collisions in St. Albert and we do that by targeting causal factors,” he said.
Distracted driving is another factor in a lot of the collisions in St. Albert, he said.
Murray said a lot of the law’s interpretation will be up to an individual officer’s discretion, but there is no formal warning program and the first tickets could be written on Thursday.
“There has been plenty or ample warning and as of Sept. 1 there will be full enforcement,” he said.
The new law does have an exception to the cellphone ban, but only if the driver is calling 911. Hands-free cellphones are still permitted.
