Thanks to everyone who crashed their cars because they were on their phones, now none of us are allowed to talk and drive.
Some people find it amoral to entertain the idea that it’s possible to use an electronic device while driving and not kill people. But a ban on distracted driving is not the natural order of things, it was a reaction to the number of inept motorists who don’t know how to prioritize safety.
The freedom to drive while operating handheld electronics was first taken away from British Columbians in 2010, and after the province toughened the rules earlier this month, the renegades who still do it will be subject to $543 in penalties if they get caught.
It wasn’t that long ago when it was completely legal for us to simultaneously drive and communicate wirelessly, but that privilege has been revoked because too many inferior motorists ruined it for everyone.
In my experience, electronic devices haven’t been nearly as distracting as cheesy billboards, pretty girls and my own internal musings.
But it is possible that distracted driving is pure evil, and maybe I don’t recognize how real the danger is because I haven’t been subjected to enough public education and awareness.
Cue the television ad featuring a loving family that suffers a horrible automobile death because Tiffany felt the need to text Madeline about midterms. The campaigns meant to scare us straight can be memorable, but it’s tough to sympathize with such an excessive level of sensationalism.
Of course it’s depressing to think about the lives ruined because of distracted driving, and it may seem insensitive to glaze over the darkest possible outcome, but reenacting morbid scenarios does a poor job resonating with the culprits.
If they’d like to make the commercials somewhat relatable, they should illustrate the frustration of being stuck behind a distracted shlub who didn’t notice there was an advance green. Or a bubblegum-chewing teenager driving unnecessarily slow leading a lineup of 50 cars as she Googles how to find the nearest bathroom. Those are much more accurate manifestations of distracted driving.
The laws first came into place shortly after Blackberry first made it easy to put the internet in our pocket around 2008-2009. Pretty much as soon as we acquired all of human understanding at our fingertips, we squandered the ability to use it in motion.
But the ban isn’t completely across the board. If there was no mitigating the risks associated with using electronics while driving, there would exist no exemptions for police officers. Not everybody agrees that the police should be immune to the distracted driving law, but cops are people who we count on to possess above average cognitive skills, they receive special training, they have important stuff to do – and it’s not likely their colleagues are going to bust them for it.
It’s interesting to ponder how these penalties are decided upon. They certainly weren’t election issues. Does every dollar built into the fine actually mean something; do the lawmakers worry drivers would be more likely to break the law if the penalty was only $542? And why settle with a three-digit number – the province had the ability to set the penalty much higher than $543 for a first-time offender, but for whatever reason, perpetrators have been left with some breathing room.
There’s little doubt that the province’s proactive approach of harshening penalties and increasing enforcement against distracted drivers will make B.C. a safer place, although stiffer fines won’t be as effective at deterring wealthy motorists, and those with enough money can still get caught numerous times before ICBC will stop insuring them.
And there’s still far too much leniency given to the incompetent distracted drivers whose made this an issue.
So to garnish these new penalties, it would be nice to see the province drop a heavier hammer on the distracted drivers who do the crashing.
If the province wants to its values to become reality, it should simply ban the offenders from driving.
By Dan Walton
