A lot of drivers have this narcissistic notion that they are the best drivers in the world. It’s as if they believe Jeff Gordon taught them to drive, when, realistically, most drivers behave as if they’ve ingested Charlie Sheen’s tiger blood.
Worse yet, some of these same people text behind the wheel, when the vehicle’s actually in motion. It really ought to be illegal to text and drive. Oh, wait: here in Victoria, it is! There’s even a fine of $167 and a three-point penalty.
According to the BC government, over 1,300 drivers were caught from February 2010 to September 2011 texting or emailing with one hand and holding a steering wheel in the other.
So, in a 19-month span, only 1,300 people were ticketed in all of BC. This number seems a tad low. Makes one wonder how effective this law is. Drivers don’t understand the severe impact that texting while driving can have.
In 2010, distracted driving was a contributing factor in 104 collision fatalities in BC, according to the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA).
More recently, in Quebec, a young woman drove into the back of a truck while texting with her
fiancé. She’s dead now. Imagine how awful her fiancé feels. Imagine if she had of taken more lives than just her own. He’d feel even worse.
The tragedy of it all is there will be many people who still won’t learn. But no one would ignore the laws if the fines were heftier.
That’s a loaded “if” because everybody’s above the law these days. But enforcing the law wouldn’t be an issue if there were a way to prevent it from happening. For instance, car manufacturers could work to create a mechanism, a mobile deactivator that electronically turns off cell phones as soon as the ignition is started.
And that’s what society has come to: drivers need to be treated like children so they will behave and obey the rules. Misbehave and toys start being taken away. Continue to misbehave and privileges will be revoked.
Misbehave again, well, there’s a nice 10 by 10 cell where a lengthy timeout could be served.
Maybe drivers would understand the stupidity of texting while driving if they had to spend time in jail with a seven-foot tall skinhead named Hanz.