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YOU CANT TOUCH THAT.................................................14 people over 8 years , gov claims 80 a year.....not the same..
January 30, 2018B.C. lawyer says number of driving fatalities due to electronic devices is ‘exaggerated’
Are governments, ICBC and even the police exaggerating the dangers of distracted driving? A Richmond company says its freedom-of-information request has revealed far fewer deaths due to drivers using cellphones than officials claim. Ted Chernecki reports
-A A +A Richmond lawyer says ICBC and the province are greatly exaggerating the number of deaths caused by using an electronic device behind the wheel.
According to Paul Doroshenko, BC Coroners stats show that 14 people died from using an electronic device while driving between 2008 and 2016. This after ICBC said last year that 80 people a year were dying from distracted driving.
“They lump in people who are staring at their radio, or just drift off not thinking, maybe people who fall asleep, with people with cellphone violations,” said Doroshenko.
“Clearly, cellphone violations aren’t the threat they are made out to be.”
READ MORE: B.C. to impose big penalties for distracted driving
Doroshenko said he’s not suggesting that using a device while driving isn’t dangerous, but the problem is that those people aren’t the ones being stopped.
“They justify these enforcement actions where they hand out tickets like crazy to people who look at their cellphone at an intersection when they hear it beep and they’re worried about their kid at school or something — those people get a ticket.”
He said giving tickets to people who are just sitting at a light won’t help make roads safer, noting the fines exceed the risk.
In a written response to Doroshenko’s numbers, Joanna Linsangan with ICBC said the focus on smartphone safety is because they are the most common driver distraction.
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I reckon 0 people around the world have been killed while texting at a red light. But whatever, cel. phones shouldn't be used while driving, it isn't hard to put your phone in the glove box for a 20min drive.
But make no mistake about it, they want the $$$ from potential tickets under the guise that they care about our safety. That's what irks me.
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maybe re'evaluating the testing process and acknowledging there might be a problem in stead of exaggerating facts to justify other functions that ARENT attributable to accident's ;ie windows, radio's cigerettes stop handing licences out to idiots . anybody that doesn't live in the accident prone areas that I posted last nite in the icbc thread has to pay higher premiums because of high density accident prone areas and a % of idiots that drive in them, isn't fair.
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