By Staff
November 1, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) hold an Annual Crime Prevention Week campaign. This year, the Halton Regional Police Service is focusing on the increasing issue of Distracted Driving.
One only has to drive around to see the number of distracted drivers either talking on their cell phones or with their heads down, texting in their laps.
In 2013, distracted driving caused more deaths than impaired driving in Ontario. It is also a direct cause of 30-50 percent of collisions, yet people continue to ignore the warnings and choose to drive distracted putting not only their lives at risk but everyone around them.
The markers on the map will show how many people in each community actually signed the pledge on line – were you one of them?
Halton Regional Police issued a total of 6,857 distracted driving tickets in 2013. From January through to October 2014, 6,916 tickets have been issued. Drivers are not getting the point.
Our “Thumbs Up Against Distracted Driving” campaign is an educational initiative that serves to create awareness and encourage dialogue between drivers of all ages in hopes of getting people to take the pledge to put the phone down.
High School Liaison officers will be engaging youths in high schools around the Region to break the habit and put their phones down while driving. A thumb band with the reminder “W82TXT” will be handed out to be worn.
The Regional police are going close to all out on this educational initiative and have set up a section of their web site where people can “take the pledge” not to text while driving.
They have created a map showing how many people in each community within the Region have taken the pledge.
“We encourage people to go to our website and take the pledge. A friendly challenge between municipalities can be followed on the map. Take the HRPS Pledge and watch the numbers in your municipality grow” suggest the police. Click here to take that pledge.
Let’s all help make Canada’s, more specifically, Halton’s roads the safest in the world!
Follow @HaltonPolice on Twitter and join the conversation using the following hashtags: #HRPSPledge and #W82TXT.
TAKE THE PLEDGE – is a waste of time. People are quite aware of what could happen if they text or talk on the phone and drive. Unfortunately they think it will not happen to them.
I would like to see legislation that makes car manufacturers come up with some sort of signal that interferes with cell phone reception. This is the only way people will stop talking and texting while driving.