Chris 罢丑辞尘辫蝉辞苍B次元官网网址檚 first traffic safety video in 2013 led to increased speed limits on some B.C. highways, and heB次元官网网址檚 hoping his latest one prompts similar reforms to the wave of distracted driving tickets for cell phone use.
The latest controversy involves $368 traffic tickets being issued to B.C. drivers for having their phones sitting in a cupholder to charge while driving, or being held in hand at a stop light but not used.
罢丑辞尘辫蝉辞苍B次元官网网址檚 , produced for driver advocacy group SenseBC, is called Speed Kills Your Pocketbook 2: Lying with Statistics. It reveals how accident data have been selectively fed to news media to reinforce a need for a crackdown on cell phone use. That has produced a blitz of 40,000 cell phone-related tickets in recent years, with only two deaths actually related to cell phone use, while over the same period, 100 deaths for other types of distraction, prompted fewer than 5,700 tickets.
Creation of a new villain: Impaired driving fatalities fall significantly, making slightly higher, even as it also declines. Cell phones are easiest to target
B次元官网网址� Tom Fletcher (@tomfletcherbc)
B次元官网网址淪o why the huge enforcement blitz for these two people?B次元官网网址� Thompson asks in the video. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 because itB次元官网网址檚 so, so easy, and drivers have money.B次元官网网址�
Thompson and Sense BCB次元官网网址檚 Ian Tootill argue that no one has ever died from looking at a cell phone while stopped at a traffic light, and almost none have died in cell phone-related crashes of any kind.
RELATED:
RELATED:
B.C. VIEWS:
罢丑辞尘辫蝉辞苍B次元官网网址檚 statistics show that the rise of cell phone use and phone-related tickets has actually corresponded with a decline in distracted driving deaths. Between 2007 and 2016, annual distracted driving fatalities fell from 100 to 80 per year. Over the same period, impaired driving fatalities fell even more, from 170 to just below 80.
The decline in impaired deaths has been used in recent years by Premier John Horgan, Attorney General David Eby and Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth to emphasize that distracted driving is now B次元官网网址渨orseB次元官网网址� than impaired driving, and that cell phones are the key culprit. This is the B次元官网网址渓ying with statisticsB次元官网网址� that justifies the cell phone blitz as statistics improve, which has so far been supported by one judge in a ticket dispute.
And are cell phones the main cause of ? Not even close
B次元官网网址� Tom Fletcher (@tomfletcherbc)
Speed Kills Your Pocketbook 2 also reviews the way Transportation Minister Claire Trevena skewed accident statistics to justify reducing highway speed limits that were increased to as much as 120 km/h. Trevena rolled back speed limits on 15 sections of highway where they were raised in 2014 by former minister Todd Stone.
Thompson points out that some years were selectively omitted, and that the effect of two harsh winters on crash statistics was also left out, despite the fact that on some highways, actual speeds went down as crashes rose due to bad highway conditions.
Much of the video is devoted to deconstructing Global TV news reports, which breathlessly depict cell phones and increased speed limits as reckless killers of B.C. motorists. Thompson said most media outlets fell for the narrative that supports a massive revenue grab, much of it going to ICBC for penalty points and insurance rate hikes as costs and tickets increase.
B次元官网网址淭ake statistical news stories with a huge grain of salt, because a lot of times theyB次元官网网址檙e biased towards sensationalism,B次元官网网址� Thompson says in the video.
Speed Kills Your Pocketbook 2 includes a testimonial from a retired West Vancouver traffic officer, who says the fatalities show he was being ordered by government and ICBC to enforce the wrong things.
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
Like us on and follow us on .
