It’s National Safe Driving Week in Canada (December 1 to 7). The Canada Safety Council’s annual campaign since the 1950s focuses on preventing impaired and distracted driving and safe driving tips throughout the winter.
Distracted driving remains a grave threat to road safety in Canada, and it appears to be on the rise. According to RATESDOTCA’s survey data*, when respondents were asked what they think is the most significant cause of motor vehicular traffic deaths, 40% of respondents said distracted driving, 33% said impaired driving, and 27% didn’t know.
When comparing our survey data in 2019 to 2020 that asked Canadians about their behaviours behind the wheel, here’s what we found:
Other hazardous behaviours Canadians are engaging in behind the wheel includes:
It is illegal to interact with a mobile phone or any handheld electronic device while behind the wheel of a vehicle, even if you’re stopped at a traffic light or stop sign. The only exception is if you need to call 9-1-1 because of an emergency.
Respondents to the RATESDOTCA survey believe texting while driving is most likely to contribute to a collision (58%), followed by making a phone call (19%), eating (14%), and drinking a beverage or using a GPS mapping system (8% each). All of these behaviours are risky and can lead to a car accident.
Meanwhile, data from Transport Canada finds distraction was a contributing factor in 21% of fatal collisions and 27% of collisions resulting in serious injury in Canada in 2016. If that isn’t enough to raise alarm, consider the financial costs to your car insurance premium, which could sharply increase if you’re convicted of driving a vehicle while distracted. Insurers are taking measures to limit their losses and drivers with a distracted driving conviction can expect premiums to increase by at least 15% to 25% if insurers don’t deny them coverage outright.
What is distracted driving? In essence, it is anything that diverts a motorist’s attention away from driving. That could involve eating, drinking, grooming, smoking or reaching for items in your vehicle. Though these actions are not part of Ontario’s distracted driving law, you can be charged with careless or dangerous driving for any of them. In terms of distracted driving, Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act applies to the use of all handheld communication or entertainment devices while behind the wheel.
Mobile devices are designed to be attention grabbers. Constantly checking our phones may be attributed to the so-called ‘fear of missing out’, which is the desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing. Repeatedly checking a phone for notifications can become an involuntary habit.
For drivers, breaking that habit may require taking steps such as:
Given the prevalence of driver distraction, governments have established laws with serious penalties for drivers convicted of the offence.
The fines and penalties are particularly harsh in Ontario, where drivers face fines up to $1,000, are hit with three demerit points, and a three-day licence suspension for the first infraction. That infraction will stay on your driving record for three years from the date of conviction. The penalties increase with repeat infractions.
For novice drivers with a G1 or G2 licence, the fines are the same. Though no demerit points will be issued, novice drivers will face longer suspension times:
Drivers in other provinces and territories face different penalties.
If you have been convicted of distracted driving and are concerned about how it will affect your car insurance premium, here are two things you can do:
* The second annual distracted driving survey was conducted by Forum Research between February 3 to February 8, 2020 and polled 1,173 respondents across Canada.