OPP lays 1,607 “distracted driving” charges during the Victoria Day long weekend

The Ontario government banned the use of hand held devices while driving in 2009 (phones, GPS devices etc). Over the Victoria Day long weekend the OPP said they’ll use “all available resources” to catch those drivers who are disobeying the law. They were focusing in on “aggressive driving, impaired driving, seatbelt compliance and distracted driving”. A OPP press release was sent out with stats from the last few days that revealed that “officers laid a total of 6,361 driving related charges. 1,607 for distracted driving, 5,351 for speeding, 641 seatbelt charges and 128 were alcohol related charges.”

I briefly spoke with Sergeant Dave Woodford about the 1,607 distracted drivers and he didn’t have a specific numbers for those convicted for cellphone use, but did state that last weeks Road Safety Week blitz the OPP was laying an average of 200 charges for per day that were directly associated with cellphone use. The fine for violating the law is a minimum $155 to a maximum of $500, plus demerit points.

Source: CNW