Don Pitcairn wrote an interesting article in the Naked Truth about the proposal to let RCMP confiscate cell phones from drivers. I have to agree that’s going a bit too far. Don’t tell me it’s Bill Fordy’s idea. Don mentioned that the police computers are also very distracting for drivers. He made reference to the Ashley Guiboche coroner's inquest who was killed by an RCMP cruiser.
A blog reader recently wrote in expressing the same concern when Guelph Police Const. Jennifer Kovach, 26,was killed when she apparently lost control of her cruiser and crashed into a bus. They also cited a case last month where a Vernon officer heading northbound on Hwy 97A came into the right hand curve approximately a 1/2 km north of Pleasant Valley Road. He left the road on the right hand side and rolled the vehicle, coming to a rest on the passenger side.
Clearly those police computers can be just as much of a distraction as a cell phone. Texting while driving should result in a ticket but they should not confiscate the cell phone. Seizing your car after two drinks isn’t right either.
I don't know K... a ticket isn't enough of a deterrent to get people to stop using their phones while driving.
ReplyDeleteI was walking my children to school one day last year and a lady texting on a cell phone drove through a stop sign almost hitting us. Of course she got out and apologized, saying she hadn't seen us... it wasn't till I grabbed her phone and smashed it on the ground that I drove my point home. Do you think it stopped her... nope a week later she did the same thing.
Her social life at 8am was more important than the safety of anyone else. Do you think a ticket will stop her?
You have a valid concern. Just like drinking and driving is a valid concern. In that case the people who have two drinks aren’t causing the problem it’s the people who are driving after three or six drinks. Seizing the car at two drinks is very big brother. Likewise I’m not comfortable with giving the police power to seize your private and personal property.
ReplyDeleteI don’t own a cell phone, they drive me crazy so I’m not texting while driving. Like anything discipline should be progressive. First a ticket then maybe. It’s just the whole idea of the police taking your personal property is a very slippery slope to removing the charter right protecting against unnecessary searches and seizures.
I'm trying to figure out what makes the police so much better than a citizen. Texting on a phone is obviously a major hazard, whereas simply talking on a phone would seem not to be if people were capable of watch straight ahead of them while they talk. Apparently many are not.
DeleteBut somehow a police officer ON A LAPTOP is not a potential problem? They should be prohibited from accessing these computers unless their vehicle is stationary and the gearshift in "park". What's safe for the goose is safe for the gander.....
well i for 1 think cell phone should not be used while driving, nor should computers in a passenger car or police car i agree with K, fines first and then license suspension with a heavier fine if a person does it a third time then i think a 2 year driving ban should be considered .. i own a cell phone and 24/7 have volume on off so when driving i don't hear it so not concerned about playing with it while driving when i get to my destination i sometimes look at it see if any missed calls .. and as for the police seizing a persons phone that is totally unconstitutional and will create lots of major altercations between common folk and police .. and i am 1 of them folk that will stand to a police and will stop them from touching my phone .. the level of violence that will ensue from the police seizing peoples cell phones will be amazing not to mention all the law suits the people will rebel from this police oppression ...
ReplyDeleteThis is the problem with the out-of-control group of "Mad Mothers." They are fanatics, one I watched on TV had the guts to just come out and say, she wanted the drunk driver who killed her son executed by the Gov't. Fine; I can accept how she feels.
ReplyDeleteBut turning over Legislation-advisement to that group of revenge-minded persons was wrong. Naturally, they advised the Gov't. to take the hardest line possible, and they don't care about democracy or any other restrictions on their desires.
Revenge should never be the motive for legislation.