The Burnaby RCMP Traffic Services group is on a roll with nailing reckless drivers.
May is called “high-risk driving” month and on Friday officers were out in force going after distracted drivers in Burnaby.
In just a short amount of time, officers caught 11 drivers violating distracted driving regulations. This include two commercial truck drivers talking on the cellphones, which is especially alarming considering how large these vehicles are and how they have a much-smaller margin of error when on Burnaby streets.
Each one of the 11 distracted drivers were tickets for $368 - not bad considering it's harder to catch people driving while distracted compared to speeding.
This effort follows a concerted effort by traffic officers to punish reckless Burnaby drivers.
In March alone, Burnaby RCMP issued 229 distracted driving tickets, including a couple to drivers wearing phones on the back of their hands via a ring or stand. Wearing your mobile phone like a Ring Pop won’t save you from a distracted driving ticket, according to Burnaby RCMP. Distracted driving involves any non-driving activity that reduces a driver's ability to focus on the road or control their vehicle, according to ICBC.
It is the leading contributing factor in police-reported injury crashes in B.C.
Then, in April, traffic enforcers staged another blitz on school and playground zones. In just three hours of enforcement, police nailed 45 reckless drivers. Five speeding tickets were handed out in the area around Capitol Hill Elementary, and 40 tickets were handed out at a playground zone on Springer Avenue at Beecher Park.
I know I harp on distracted driving a lot, but it’s only because I’m a reformed distracted driver who has smartened up after a close call five years ago.
So I’m not immune to the temptation to “multitask” while I’m driving. Our lives are incredibly busy and we never feel we have enough so we make bad choices by trying to do other things while we’re driving.
This is one reason why I’m taking transit a little more. I can go through my emails in the morning while on SkyTrain or the bus without worrying I’m risking the lives of other people.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
