Canada-status:banning cellphone use while driving
Looks like Ontario is proposing provincial legislation to ban cellphone use while car driving.
Article includes status of other legislation. Some mention of the U.S. developments.
Ontario bill would ban cellphone use by drivers
Province may seek 'next-generation' legislation prohibiting behind-the-wheel use of mobile devices
Article Comments (169) ZOSIA BIELSKI
From Monday's Globe and Mail
October 26, 2008 at 9:52 PM EDT
The Ontario government may table a bill to ban drivers from using electronic devices as early as Tuesday, a move that would see the province follow Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, which have all banned drivers from chatting and texting on handheld devices while on the road.
On Friday, Ontario Safety League president Brian Patterson said he has been working to develop such a bill with the Ministry of Transportation and that he was called to meet with Transportation Minister Jim Bradley Tuesday. Nicole Lippa-Gasparro, a spokeswoman for the minister, would not confirm or deny the report Friday night, and could not be reached Sunday.
Transport Canada's 2008 report on driver and phone use rates states that 37 per cent of drivers reported using a cellphone while driving and those people had “the most commonly seen unsafe driving behaviours,” such as tailgating or speeding.
Also, the Ontario Medical Association has concluded that driving and talking on a cellphone creates the same risk for the driver as being at the legal limit for alcohol consumption. OMA research, conducted in September, found that talking on cellphones impaired drivers' visual concentration, the speed at which they process information and their reaction time. Some drivers also abandoned checking their mirrors entirely while on the phone.
Premier Dalton McGuinty announced in May that he was considering legislation that would ban all hand-held devices, not just cellphones, forcing drivers to use headsets or speaker systems instead. Police officials had advised Mr. McGuinty to ban all gadgets that have the potential to distract multitasking drivers, and that would include GPS navigation systems that see drivers typing in street addresses on screens mounted in their cars. The Premier had also asked Mr. Bradley to look at “next generation” legislation that would take into account electronic devices that are still on the drawing board.
In 2003, Newfoundland and Labrador became the first province to ban hand-held cellphones behind the wheel. Penalties in the province range from $11 to $400, plus four demerit points. Officials in the province have also tried to discourage drivers from using hands-free devices such as Bluetooths and headsets, but admit such a ban would be difficult to enforce.
In April, Nova Scotia enacted its cellphone ban: Drivers face a $164.50 fine for a first offence, $222 for a second violation and $337 for any subsequent offences.
That April, Quebec also banned drivers from using hand-held cellphones, but gave Quebeckers time to warm up by only issuing warnings for the first three months. The law was fully enacted on June 30, and drivers now face a $115 fine and three demerit points. The province also added another twist: Penalties apply even if drivers are not talking but are spotted with a cellphone in their hands.
Quebec's coroner's office has blamed cellphones for 24 fatal car crashes in the province between 2000 and 2006.
About 50 countries, including Australia and Japan, have restrictions in place.
In the United States, the District of Columbia and 17 states have laws that restrict cellphone use for teenage drivers. But critics have said that communication-hungry teens are flouting the laws, which they say are difficult to enforce because police officers must correctly guess the driver's age.
Although the hand-held cell has taken most of the blame, critics suggest bans that push for hands-free devices miss the point: They say drivers' minds are distracted by the conversation, not by whether one or both hands are on the wheel.
“For many people, hands-free may be worse because some studies indicate people tend to talk longer with hands-free, don't pull over to the right and don't slow down,” Raynald Marchand of the Canada Safety Council said in March.
Manitoba and Prince Edward Island are also considering a ban, but in Alberta, Premier Ed Stelmach spoke out against a private member's bill introduced in the legislature to ban drivers from using cellphones.
As for whether the bans actually work, in Newfoundland, statistics show an eight per cent drop in the number of collisions between 2003 and 2005, shortly after the law came into effect.
