DISTRACTED DRIVING CAMPAIGN AIMS TO LOWER RISK IN BURNABY

Dangerous driving habits can quickly lead to accidents. To take control of the situation, Mounties in Canada have been working on a number of enforcement campaigns to eliminate risks to drivers. One campaign in particular affects Burnaby and aims to reduce distracted driving to keep the roads safe.

Mounties in Burnaby have launched a distracted driving enforcement campaign that is focused on reducing the number of distracted drivers on the road. The local police worked with the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia to create a new enforcement program and to bring more education to the public. While the main program does involve pulling over drivers who are distracted, it’s hoped that with education, fewer will be driving dangerously to begin with.

In early September, the police set up in District 3 to identify dangerous drivers. In just minutes, they reported that they began to pull over drivers. Since June, the penalties for distracted driving have been increased with fines of $368. Drivers also have to pay $175 for four driver penalty points, costing a distracted driver a shocking $543.

Since the higher penalties went into place, the Burnaby Mounties have reported that they handed out 1,232 distracted driving tickets, significantly fewer than the 2,138 given out during the first five months of 2016. The campaign ended at the end of September, so police will be able to look into the results and move forward from there. In the meantime, those who are still impacted by dangerous drivers can continue to seek legal claims and insurance claims against the at-fault driver in any accident to recoup monetary losses.

Source: Burnaby Now, “Burnaby Mounties launch distracted driving enforcement campaign,” accessed Oct. 11, 2016