Some B.C. drivers’ addiction to their cellphones is becoming a very expensive habit, according to data provided to CTV News.
Drivers have paid $26.7 million in distracted driving fines – some 160,000 tickets -- since legislation was introduced in 2010.
“The behaviour needs to change and that’s why it’s a priority,” said ICBC’s Jill Blacklock.
The first year the fines were introduced, the provincial take was $3.5 million. That almost doubled in 2011 to $6.1 million, then $8 million in 2012, to almost $9 million last year.
Authorities now go on two enforcement blitzes each year, with officers writing 145 distracted driving tickets per day on average.
The money collected from distracted driving tickets alone is now 15 per cent of all fine revenue – a healthy income that is pooled by the province and doled out to policing initiatives, including an emergency command vehicle in Saanich.
Distracted driving deaths in B.C. dropped from 101 to 79 deaths, about 20 per cent, when the laws came into force, but since then have been inching up, statistics show. In 2012, there were 81 distracted driving deaths in B.C.
The drop was bigger in the Lower Mainland, where there were 35 deaths in 2010, down to 22 deaths in 2011, but then up to 28 deaths in 2012. More recent statistics are not available.
The province has been mulling increasing the fines, looking to Ontario, where a distracted driving fine is $280.
However Ian Tootill of Sense BC says drivers are tapped out. He said he wants to see more data that increased fines mean more safety for drivers before the measure is put in place.
“We need to address this safety issue but I’m not sure that traffic laws are the way to do it,” he said.
ICBC says they’ll take drivers’ money, but they’d rather change drivers’ behaviour. One way is to change what’s asked of people on their phones.
“If you’re an employer and you know someone is behind the wheel of a car, don’t call them, or set a culture in your company that changes that,” Blacklock said.
