Our cell phone chatting driving lifestyle in British Columbia is now over. Yes, it’s a driving activity many of us do often. I’ve been asked already “what kind of hands-free cell phone device will I get?”
Our provincial government passed a law prohibiting the use of hand-held devices while driving.
To ease this culture shock law, our police forces will hold off issuing tickets for using hand-held devices until February 1/10. We get an extra month to figure out how to drive without using our prized electronic devices.
In case you’re wondering, the law in BC applies to hand-held devices, not hands-free devices. This mean you can drive and talk as long as the device you’re talking into is not in your hand.
The new law prohibiting hand-held devices comes with a price – a ticket price that is. If you get caught using your hand-held device, it’ll cost you $167.
For those learner or novice BC drivers, you can’t even use hands-free devices. The new law mandates that you not talk to anyone except live passengers.
What in the world would get our elected officials to pass such a law? 1 main reason and 1 secondary reason. First, obviously it’s the car collisions caused by drivers on the phone and texting. Our society simply can’t stomach the pain and suffering such negligence causes. Also though, is the fact that many jurisdictions already passed similar laws. It’s acceptable and now encouraged in our populations to have these types of laws.
After watching other jurisdictions pass similar laws, our BC government decided to follow suit in Fall 2009, which is when our hand-held-device-while-driving-law was passed.
So while we’ve been planning for a January 1, 2010 start to silent driving, or at least returning to our satellite radio players, we have until February 1, 2010 until we’ll see the red and blue lights for chatting on the phone.
With mobile phones practically becoming the new personal computer, this type of law will probably get drivers to again focus on driving rather than working and being entertained.
Looking for a British Columbia car accident lawyer, then visit Dykstra & Company to get information on your ICBC claim.