Ontario Sets Higher Fines For Distracted Driving – But Not High Enough!

A News Commentary by Doug Draper

There is an old saying that goes something like – ‘Set the punishment to fit the crime.’

Texting and talking on cellphones while driving is a major cause of deaths on our roads.

With that in mind, it is good that Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation, starting this September 1^st, 2015, is finally increasing fines for texting or talking on a cellphone while driving from a paltry $280 (including a $5 court fee and $50 victim surcharge fee) to $490 plus the same two mandatory fees and the docking of three demerit points.

While this means Ontario now has among the highest, if not the fine for distracted driving of any province or territory in Canada, and New York State where the fine is as high as $450 for a third offence, it is not as high as fines for some of the other driving offences in Ontario that cause fewer deaths and injuries.

Check out the following – The base fine for drunk driving in Ontario is now going up from $600 to $1,000, with 30 and120 day jail stints for second and third offences respectively. And while many would rightfully argue that penalties for driving while impaired aren’t high enough, Ontario Provincial Police statistics for 2013 show the number of deaths related to drunk driving totaled 57 compared to 78 linked to people driving while texting or talking on a cellphone – comparisons similar, by the way, to those recorded in many other jurisdictions across the continent in recent years.

The penalties for a first offence for anyone passing a stopped school bus with its upper red lights flashing range from $400 to $2,000 with a loss of six demerit points. Each additional offence can slap a driver with fines ranging from $1,000 to $4,000, a loss of six demerit points and possible jail time. I’ve got no problem with penalties like that for offences that statistics compiled between 1995 and 2004 record a total of 142 school bus related deaths over that 10 year period.

Of course, one death is unacceptable and there is no way of placing a price on the loss of a friend or loved one under any circumstances involving vehicles on our roads and highways.

Yet why set such a low base fine for distracted driving offences that are among the highest causes of traffic fatalities? Why not a base fine of $2,000, combined with the loss of six demerit points and the suspension of a driver’s license for one year for anyone caught texting or using a cell phone while driving, unless they can make a case that they can make a case that they had to call 9-1-1 or some similar number due to an emergency?

In the new set of penalties the Ontario Transportation Ministry is putting into effect this September 1^st, there is a provision for fines of up to $2,000, a possible jail term of up to six months and the loss of six demerit points if it is determined that the distracted driver is driving carelessly enough to “endanger others.”

But how is that determined? It could just as well be argued that the very act of texting or talking on a cellphone while driving is an endangerment to others.

We’re talking about people not paying attention while they are moving around a tonne or more of steel. What’s the difference between that and waving around a loaded gun?

I often wonder if governments are reluctant to set higher penalties for distracted drivers because they know that many people, including people with white collar jobs – wanted to use these devices for business and other purposed they think are important while they are spending so much of their day commuting around in their cars.

All the more reason to leave the car home and use public transit.

For more information from the Ontario Ministry of Transport on the province’s new road safety rules and penalties for offences click on – http://news.ontario.ca/mto/en/2015/08/new-road-safety-rules-in-effect-september-1.html .

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