After wrapping up their Labour Day long weekend campaign Tuesday, Bancroft OPP will continue to watch for distracted drivers.
That’s the message OPP Constable Philippe Regamey wants to get across. Officers in Bancroft laid the most distracted driving charges in the East region. In the region, 2,144 charges were laid during Labour Day long weekend. Bancroft Officers laid 52 of those. 15 of them were for distracted driving.
People know that they can be charged for distracted driving if they’re on their phone, but Regamey says that’s not the only way you can be charged. If Officers see you using your MP3 player while driving or fiddling with your GPS system, that’s distracted driving too.
Regamey says that with GPS systems, if you need one, you’re most likely in a place you’re unfamiliar with. If that’s the case, you should be paying closer attention to the road than usual. He says if you need to change something on your GPS, find a safe place to pull over.
Regamey added instead of pulling out your phone will driving and risking a distracted driving charge, get a Bluetooth device. “A Bluetooth device is cheaper than getting a distracted driving charge,” Regamey says.
Regamey said that driving distracted isn’t worth it. “It’s not worth your life or another person on the highway losing their life,” he says.
