Ontario Provincial Police will be out in full force over the next few days as they conduct a long weekend crackdown on distracted and inattentive driving.
The blitz begins today and will run through Labour Day.
According to a press release, OPP officers will be patrolling the roads, trails and waterways all wekend with a focus on “looking out for high risk drivers and conducting high visibility enforcement” to discourage distracted or inattentive driving.
“There are 26 people dead already this year because of distraction or inattention and it is not just because of cell phones, it is also just not paying attention,” OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt told CP24 on Friday morning. “If you are enjoying the scenery and not realizing that traffic up ahead is slowing or if you are in your vehicle and fiddling with books or papers or foods or kids, whatever it is, you are putting yourself, your passengers and everybody else in jeopardy. Sadly, we are the ones who end up getting called to the aftermath and we have to knock on doors (to notify next-of-kin). We have done that far too many times already this year.”
There have been 43,000 collisions on OPP-patrolled roads so far in 2019 and Schmidt said that many of them have involved some aspect of distraction.
He said that drivers need to get the message that using a cell phone, or being otherwise distracted while behind the wheel, puts everyone at risk.
“The definition is using or holding a handheld communication device, so if you are holding it you committed the offence already and if you are not holding it but you are using it you can also be fined,” he said. “So if it is in your cup holder or even mounted to your dash and you are sitting there tapping on your screens or going through some pages, it is an offence. The only thing you are allowed to do with the phone is do a single point of contact to answer or end a call.”
The OPP will be hosting a media launch for the blitz at the ONroute service center in King City this morning.
