Distracted Driving tips

The McLennan RCMP Detachment would like to provide the motoring public with an update regarding distracted driving and safe driving tips.

What is Distracted Driving?

* Distracted driving is doing anything that takes your eyes off the road … because accidents happen in a fraction of a second.

* Distracted driving is using your cellphone, using a GPS, eating, playing with the radio, checking your makeup, reading, being distracted by a pet passenger, anything that takes your eyes off the road. It only takes a second and a collision can occur!

* Keep your eyes on the road, hands on the wheel – put your focus where it should be.

– multi-tasking while driving could prove to a fatal error in judgment.

Distracted driving is dangerous

* You are 23 times more likely to be involved in a collision if you text while driving and four times more likely if you talk on a cellphone [hand-held or hands-free] while driving. [Source: Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, 2010]

* A study showed that nearly 80 per cent of collisions and 65 per cent of near-collisions involved some form of driver inattention up to three seconds prior to the event. [Virginia Tech Transportation Institute]

* Nearly three out of four Canadian drivers admit to driving distracted. [Source: Lager Marketing, 2010]

* If you talk on a cellphone while driving, you are just as impaired as someone with a blood alcohol content of .08. [Source: University of Utah, 2006]

* Research by Alberta Transportation indicates that approximately one-in-four collisions involve driver distraction. [Distracted Driving & Cellphone Use while Driving 2007].

Traffic Stats (Jan. 1 – Sept. 30, 2016]

* 6,745 tickets were issued for distracted driving in Alberta RCMP jurisdictions in 2016 as of Sept. 30, 2016.

* 3,493 people were injured in motor vehicle collisions in Alberta RCMP jurisdictions in 2016 as of September 2016.

– 158 people died in motor vehicle collisions in Alberta RCMP jurisdictions in 2016 as of September 2016.

Penalties for Distracted Driving

* The penalty for distracted driving in Alberta is a $287 fine and three demerit points.

* Should a driver receive too many demerit points, their driver’s licence is suspended. Drivers in the Graduated Driver Licensing [GDL] Program are suspended when they collect eight or more points. Fully licensed drivers are suspended when they collect 15 or more points.

The McLennan RCMP reminds you to drive according to the road conditions as we head into the winter weather driving season. Please allow sufficient time to arrive at your destination safely and follow the safe driving tips.