Last week police and sheriffs in Alberta were given a new tool to help combat distracted driving.
Effective January 1, 2016 those convicted of distracted driving will not only face the specified fine of $287, but will also be given three demerits. Accumulating too many demerit points could lead to a license suspension and could affect a drivers insurance.
“From September 2011 to March of this year, there were more than 87,000 convictions for distracted driving, and despite our best efforts, distracted driving remains a real danger, with convictions increasing year over year,” said Brian Mason, Minister of Transportation. “Given these numbers, we are following through on Albertans’ wishes for stronger penalties for distracted driving.”
Staff Sergeant Grant MacDonald of the Drumheller RCMP says this could have an effect.
“It’s a moving violation just like failing to stop at a stop sign or speeding, it’s going to get the attention of drivers more consistently, because clearly just having a monetary fine attached to the violation ticket hasn’t significantly reduced the usage,” said MacDonald.
He feels that distracted driving is a concern of the community.
“Every day I see people using electronic devices, unfortunately it is in my personal vehicle rather than a marked police vehicle but I can say confidently every single day we have people driving around in our community using electronic devices,” he said.
Since the distracted driver legislation was introduced in 2011, there have been almost 90,000 convictions, young male drivers have the highest conviction rate and through 2014-2015 male drivers accounted for two-thirds of all convictions.
After time, he hopes that complying with distracted driving laws becomes habit, like seat belt usage, which became mandatory in Alberta in 1987.
“The seatbelt legislation has been around a long time and it is just automatic. Hopefully it doesn’t take as long for people to get into compliance with distracted driving because there is technology out there to be hands free. When you are dealing with young people who are inexperienced drivers, they need all the advantages they could have. That means two hands on the steering wheel at all times and focused on the road in front of them.”
For a fully licensed driver in Alberta, if they accumulate more than eight demerits, but less than 15, they are mailed a courtesy notice. The accumulation of 15 or more, within a two-year period, leads to an automatic suspension of a driver’s license for one month.
For a graduated driver’s license, four points trigger a courtesy notice, and eight demerits leads to a suspension.