http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-distracted-driving-law-change-1.3573249
The British Columbia government is increasing the minimum penalty for distracted driving by more than double, to $368. Additionally, offenders will have to pay off penalty points on their driving records. The added penalties for points will range from 4 points, with a value of $175, for first offenders to as much as $14,520 for tenth time offenders. Other penalties such as driving prohibitions and license reviews will apply to repeat offenders.
The government cites a failure by the public tor respond to existing fines as the reasoning for the sharp increase. However, ICBC’s own statistics show that the number and rate of fatalities caused by distracted driving has fallen considerably since 2010:
http://www.icbc.com/about-icbc/newsroom/Documents/quick-statistics.pdf
102 deaths were caused by distracted driving occurred in 2010 vs 66 in 2014. That being said, any death caused by distracted driving is one too many. Even though, we are seeing a drop in deaths caused by distracted driving, they continue at far too high of a rate. What do you think about these increased fines?
