Legislation applauded

Finally, we have legislation that will ultimately make our roads safer for every driver and passenger who uses them.

Late last month, Solicitor General Kash Heed introduced new legislation that prohibits drivers from texting, e-mailing or holding cellphones to their ears while operating a motor vehicle.

“Simply put, you cannot talk, type or dial on any hand-held device while driving,” the BC Public Safety minister said.

Once approved by the legislature, and we cannot see any clear-thinking MLA voting against it, this law will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2010.

At that point, only hands-free communication devices that require one-touch activation will be permitted.

When this law goes into effect, it will, thankfully, have some teeth in it, as a $167 fine will be enforced, starting Feb. 1, 2010, for “distracted driving” offences. Furthermore, drivers caught texting or typing will face the $167 fine plus have three points put on their driver’s licence (up go the insurance premiums).

New drivers on the Graduated Licensing Program will have no calling privileges at all.

We applaud this law as it is based on common sense.

Anyone who drives or sits in the passenger seat has witnessed the dangerous way “distracted drivers” operate a motor vehicle.

They swerve over the centerline or into the lanes of vehicles driving in the same direction; they tailgate; they drive at erratic speeds; and they blow right through stop signs.

Frankly, they’re an accident waiting to happen.

The bottom line is they have options: buy a hands-free communication device, or pull over to make that all-important call.

It is easy for editorial writers to point fingers and complain about “they” and “those people,” but all of us who have communication devices and use them while driving have to learn how to live without them, or purchase hands-free equipment, or pull over safely to make that call.

And we have to start retraining ourselves quickly because we only have three months before we can be fined for being “distracted drivers.”

It will take a while to get used to these new rules, but safer highways and byways will be worth the effort.

+More Opinion Headlines
<Back to Mobile Edition