Young drivers trade tickets for time
Posted Apr 30, 2016 5:53 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
They’re often caught looking at their crotches, but now the RCMP are testing out a new initiative designed to turn young drivers’ eyes onto the road.
Sgt. Darrin Turnbull says RCMP wanted to try a different approach to stop distracted driving.
“Normally with a traffic ticket you only have three options,” he said. “Option one is to pay it, option two is to plead ‘not guilty’, and option three [is] go to court and talk to the prosecutor and try to work out some sort of resolution.”
Twenty-two youth in the Calgary area, all who were facing $287 tickets for driving distracted, went to a seminar to learn just how dangerous actions like texting behind the wheel can be.
The three-hour session, the first of its kind in the province, featured a 22-year-old woman who crashed her car while texting, and suffered a brain injury that she says changed her life.
The group also took test drives around a go-cart track, with and without a cell phone, as a real-life simulation of the dangers of distracted driving.
Turnbull says people of all ages make the mistake of taking their eyes off the road while driving, but RCMP chose younger drivers for a reason.
“May is young drivers month, and a lot of kids are going to be out for the summer, finishing up school here in the last few weeks and hitting the road. So we wanted to try and work with them,” he said.
He adds, the feedback from the group was positive, and he hopes that the initiative will turn into a permanent program.
“We have to wait, and we have to do some analysis now, and sit back and take a look at the program; what worked, what didn’t, is it going to make a difference, is it going to improve road safety?” Turnbull said. “Only time will tell. We have to wait and see if this is a long lasting impact, or whether in a couple of weeks or so, they forget the message.”
