Frustration mounts as distracted driving numbers increase
Drivers in Saskatchewan are still not getting the message that using cellphones while driving is not only illegal but also deadly.
Since SGI began monthly traffic safety spotlights in 2014, March saw the most traffic violations yet for distracted driving with 523 tickets were issued in the province and 441 of those were for being distracted by a cellphone.
To make matters worse, police were also watching for drivers speeding, impaired driving and seatbelt violations and those numbers were just as staggering. For the third straight month in 2017 these violation increased with 4,532 speeding or aggressive driving violations, 318 impaired driving infractions and 453 seatbelt violations in Saskatchewan in March.
In 2015, the Battlefords area had 125 distracted driving collisions resulting in 17 injuries while in Meadow Lake there were 35 distracted collisions resulting in 14 injuries and one death.