Title: Alberta to introduce distracted driving law this fall
Category: Law & Order
Posted By: WDHIII
Date: 2009-08-12 08:40:45
Canadian

   

It's about time, now to enforce the law instead of ignoring it.

   

You show greater restraint than I would.
Enforcing the law is key and yes cyclists should be included.

   

It's about time!

   

When I drive I find that most distracting thing for me is listening to the news. Ah well, I'll have to make the sacrifice.

   

Too bad we didn't draft an Anti-Distracted Politician law instead to prevent Stelmach's dorks from giving us a $25 billion debt to enjoy over the upcoming decade.

   

The only thing that distracts me when I drive is when the girlfriend is giving me a..... um..... ah...... haircut.

   

While I am all for personal responsibility, I think a little corporate responsibility is in order here.
It's been been something like 20 years since the dangers of talking on a cell phone whilst driving have been known to be a bad idea. There has even been a crackdown on it in some regions and in some states in the US in more recent years.
So, what do the cell phone manufacturers do? They make cell phones that you can text with, knowing FULL well there is a direct correlation between cell phone yapping and car accidents. I guess they figured that typing whilst driving was gonna improve the situation???
Even better, the service suppliers need to stop fucking the consumer over with illegal charges and high cost of use, then people wouldn't NEED to text to save money.
Personally? Anyone caught texting and driving should have an immediate 6 month licence suspension for careless/reckless driving, and that's if there's been no accident as a result. Repeat offenders should be banned from driving altogether.

   

I am happy to hear this. Being a motor cycle rider in the summer, you need to be extra cautious around people not paying attention. A fender bender in a car is just that, on a motorcycle a fender bender can be a serious injury or death.

   

I agree with you, in principle, but I don't see the need for any new laws in this regard. We already have penalties for careless driving and criminal penalties for dangerous driving. Just start applying the existing laws to people who chat/text/apply make-up, whatever, while driving.

As for suspending licenses, it's not a very effective punishment because taking away one's license doesn't take away one's ability to drive. Impaired Driving consequences are, likewise, ineffective. The only effective punishments are fines or jailtime (well, we could amputate limbs, remove eyes, etc ). Start handing out $2000 careless driving tickets to texting drivers and see how long it takes word to get around that people shouldn't be operating electronic devices while driving.

   

I agree that we don't need new laws for this, that's why I listed it under careless/reckless driving. Yer right tho, suspension prolly wouldn't do much unless the vehicle either gets impounded OR, the licence plates are removed by police until the suspension is up.
However I do like the idea of a nice exorbitant fine. I figure if it's a minimum $5000 fine for driving with no insurance, the fine for wantonly putting people's lives and health at risk should be at least the same.
It would be interesting tho, to see if someone that was injured by one of these idiot drivers, would also be able to sue the phone manufacturer and win.

   

Not in Ontario. We have "no-fault" so you can't sue for motor vehicle injury. I'm not sure what Alberta's system is like.