RCMP call for a cell phone ban for motorists

Alistair Waters - Kelowna Capital News

B.C.’s police chiefs want your attention on the road when you’re driving, not on a cell phone call, a text message or any other electronic device. So, the province’s top cops, led by Kelonwa RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon, are calling on Victoria to make B.C. the fifth province in Canada to ban the use of cell phones by drivers. But the cops’ call goes well beyond the bans in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Quebec and the one in Ontario which will go into effect this fall. In B.C., the police chiefs want all electronic devices—even hands-free phones—banned. “It’s been shown that 50 per cent of your brain is occupied when you are having a conversation,” said McKinnon, president of the B.C. Police Chiefs Association, a group that met in Nanaimo earlier this week. He said other studies have shown drivers are four times more likely to be in a crash when using a cell phone, be it hand-held or hands-free. The same studies have shown drivers feel safer using a hands-free phone and, as as a result, drive faster.

While there are no definitive local numbers to show how many crashes here have been caused by inattention because of cell phone use, McKinnon said his officers have noticed an increase in phone-related crashes. Newfoundland was the first Canadian province to introduce a ban on hand-held cell phone use by drivers in 2002. Nova Scotia and Quebec followed suit in 2006 and Ontario’s legislation has passed but the ban will not come into effect until the fall. In Ontario, the ban will also extend to hand-held MP3 players. Players plugged into a car’s sound system will be allowed, as will GPS systems mounted on a car’s dashboard. All four provinces do not ban hands-free calling because it is felt it would be too hard to prove a case for a ticket.

Tickets for breaking the law by using a the cell phone while driving in Newfoundland can net a driver tickets of $165 to $335, depending on how many times they have been caught before. In Quebec, fines are around $100 and in Ontario the fines will go as high as $500. As many as 50 countries around the world, as well as several states in the U.S., have bans on drivers using cell phones while behind the wheel. New York state’s cell phone ban includes a a ban on using hands-free calling.