The Editor,
Re. “Cops looking for distracted drivers” (The Tri-City News, March 18).
Stupidity? Selfishness? A total lack of respect for fellow drivers and pedestrians?
That’s exactly what distracted driving reflects.
How else can you explain the 14 citations for cellphone use while driving a Vancouver woman has racked up?
Or the Vancouver man who, while on his cell phone, collided with an SUV on the Lions Gate Bridge, seriously injuring a pregnant woman, her husband and son, not even five minutes after being ticketed for being on his cell?
And it goes beyond stupidity when you take into account the fact that in B.C., 81 people lost their lives to distracted drivers last year, 27 in the Lower Mainland.
Can you imagine the anguish of these people who lost a loved one to some idiot on the cellphone?
The Canadian Medical Association released a report that stated impaired driving deaths dramatically decreased when supplementary repercussions were implemented, including loss of driving privileges and the impounding of vehicles.
It’s so simple: If you do the crime, you pay the fine. A $169 fine for behaviour that can cause serious injury or death is nothing but a joke and an insult to us, the ones who abide by the law. Take away their licence and car and maybe it will sink in.
I researched travelling times and did you know the average trip of a driver is 12 km? Are people’s lives so infused with and dependent upon the cellphone that they can’t put it away for 30 to 40 minutes? That’s a sad indictment on our society.
Neil Swanson, Coquitlam
