Police officers taking high road to catch distracted drivers

Saskatoon police were surveilling 25th Street East near Kinsmen Avenue on Monday morning, catching drivers paying attention to their phones when their eyes should have been on the road.

For the month of October, SGI and Saskatchewan police services are focusing a traffic safety spotlight on the factor causing injuries in one in five collisions — distracted driving.

“Distracted driving is a leading cause of injury and fatality on Saskatchewan roads,” SGI media relations manager Tyler McMurchy said.

Staff Sgt. Patrick Barbar with the Saskatoon Police Service’s (SPS) Traffic Safety Unit said about 3,000 violations are issued each year for distracted driving, most of which involve a cellphone.

Saskatoon Police Service Staff Sgt. Patrick Barbar speaks to media about how police are enforcing distracted driving in Saskatoon on Oct. 4, 2021. (Libby Giesbrecht/650 CKOM)

Over the past five years, Saskatchewan has averaged 877 injuries because of distracted driving.

While the past number of years has seen a drop in collisions, injuries and fatalities related to distracted driving, the numbers are still significant. Last year, the province saw 26 fatalities, several hundred injuries and thousands of collisions because drivers weren’t giving their full attention to the road, McMurchy said.

These injuries and deaths are preventable, McMurchy explained.

“There’s no phone call, there’s no text, there’s no Instagram story or message on Snap(chat) — whatever the kids are using — there’s no TikTok video that’s worth potentially injuring or killing somebody,” he said.

Distracted driving is one of four areas the SPS’s Traffic Safety Unit focuses on, and it receives a lot of emphasis, Barbar said. It’s an area the SPS is reportedly working to implement new and innovative techniques to curb the temptation to drive without full focus on the road.

But for where innovative ideas fail, fines remain.

A ticket to the tune of $580 and four demerits is the consequence for a first offence of distracted driving for either driving without due care and attention or holding, using, manipulating or viewing a handheld cell phone. Three offences within one year will amount to a price tag of $2,100 for a driver’s third fine and a seven-day vehicle impoundment.

Police will use methods like driving motorcycles and finding areas higher than roadways to monitor for distracted driving.

Barbar and McMurchy shared one story of an individual who was so immersed in their cellphone at a red light that they didn’t notice the large police-operated impaired driving mobile testing unit nearby. Officers were able to observe the individual using their phone for a few minutes before using a siren to alert them to their presence.

“Using your phone takes away your attention from what is important,” Barbar said.

Distracted driving is not limited to just cellphones, either. Barbar said a pet on a driver’s lap, grooming practices or eating can also impede someone’s ability to drive.

“It is possible to hold a coffee and not have that affect your driving, which is fine,” Barbar explained. “But if somehow that coffee’s causing you to swerve within your lane, then it becomes driving without due care.”

On Monday, two officers with clipboards positioned near University Bridge stood on an elevated slope where they were able to watch traffic and peek into vehicles passing by. When they spotted a device in someone’s hand, an officer further up the road would be radioed to pull the driver over.

With COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations still high in Saskatchewan, McMurchy and Barbar expressed the importance of limiting collisions and their severity.

“Now would be a really good time to avoid being injured in a preventable way,” McMurchy said.

Barbar added: “It’s a time where we don’t want to overload our health-care system. Our health-care workers are doing everything they can and this type of activity just adds to that burden.”

The bottom line, Barbar and McMurchy both stressed, is the importance of paying attention to safely operating a vehicle and being aware of distractions that could affect someone’s ability to drive safely.

“Operating 4,000 pounds of glass and steel deserves your full and undivided attention,” McMurchy said.