“New Ohta Section 78 "distracted Driving"”

Our friends in Queen's Park having passed Bill 118 2009 and its now having royal assent, the amended version of OHTA Section 78 is about to come into effect. The wording of Bill 118 is here:

I think the penalties will include 6 demerit points -- correct? Do we know yet how much they're going to ding us for fines?

And they will ding us -- the sloppily-written bill prohibits, possibly by accident, all satellite car radios and virtually all standard car radios (since they have display screens visible to the driver and are not specifically exempted like GPS units or collision avoidance systems, etc.), so any of us with one of those will be an easy target.

Banning the use of hand-held cell phones was such a no-brainer that even the legislators could get that right -- but then they decided that the probably more dangerous hands-free phoning while driving can continue, which is silly.

One might be forgiven for wondering if those deep thinkers at Queen's Park were at least as much interested in raising funds as they were in promoting safety.

Proper1 wrote:I think the penalties will include 6 demerit points -- correct? Do we know yet how much they're going to ding us for fines?.

Maybe it will have the same fine that is already available for using a TV.. $110 and no points

Your hunch may be right, Bear, but about the best I've been able to find so far is the Canadian Press story from 30 September.

Details are hazy there, but CP seems to think that there will be fines "up to $500" and no points, which seems pretty light, to me. But then the story ends: "However, Ontario motorists using a banned cellphone could also be charged under careless driving laws and face fines, six demerit points, a driver's licence suspension and even jail time." Maybe having the new Section 78 and its associated regulations will make convictions under Careless more likely to stick??

I really hope it is $500, although I think that the "up to $500" may be because of the fact it is a Part 1 Certificate, which can have fines of up to $500, e.g. certain speeding offences, follow too closely, etc.

Proper1 wrote:Maybe having the new Section 78 and its associated regulations will make convictions under Careless more likely to stick??

I hope so. Just about everyone I know in Toronto has been in a collision caused by someone yakking on a cellphone.

Radar Identified wrote:I really hope it is $500, .

yes and no, the fail to move left is $490 and about 90% go to trial. I do not know if it is b/c the fine is so high or the 3 points? I rarely have a seatbelt at $110 2 points go to trial.

hwybear wrote:

Radar Identified wrote:I really hope it is $500, .

yes and no, the fail to move left is $490 and about 90% go to trial. I do not know if it is b/c the fine is so high or the 3 points? I rarely have a seatbelt at $110 2 points go to trial.

Maybe because EVERYONE knows better then not to wear the seatbelt, and thus they agree to charge when caught. Then comes the "Fail to move left" (for stopped emergency vehicles), which people see as "Fail to move left for no reason, because I don't even know the charge exists, let alone comes with a $500 fine", and thus fight it.