Anyone who drives has seen it.

YouB次元官网网址檙e heading into town on the Trans-Canada Highway and the car in front of you is drifting right, then jerks back into its lane.

Or, youB次元官网网址檙e sitting at a stoplight and it turns green, but the vehicle at the head of the line doesnB次元官网网址檛 go, prompting a honk from someone behind them.

Chances are good that, in both these scenarios, the driver of that vehicle is using their phone to check their Facebook newsfeed, or possibly send a text message, according to recently released statistics on distracted driving in B.C.

Five years after fines were introduced to help combat the scourge that is distracted driving, specifically targeting those who canB次元官网网址檛 stay off their electronic devices, some people still havenB次元官网网址檛 gotten the message.

ICBC estimates that, at any given time, 9,500 drivers in the province are using a handheld device. A total of 55,100 tickets were issued last year to drivers caught using an electronic device B次元官网网址� an increase of about four per cent.

This despite crashes, and deaths, being on the rise due to distracted driving.

According to ICBC, distraction actually took over the top spot in B次元官网网址渢op contributing factor in fatal crashesB次元官网网址� back in 2013. An average of 88 people are killed in our province each year due to distracted drivers.

ItB次元官网网址檚 time to do something about this. If the fact that distracted driving is killing people and causing destruction isnB次元官网网址檛 enough of a deterrent, itB次元官网网址檚 time to raise the penalties given out when weB次元官网网址檙e caught doing it. That said, B.C.B次元官网网址檚 distracted driving fines are the second lowest in Canada.

When the penalties went up for driving while intoxicated, the number of offences went down. Would the same happen if we increased the penalties for distracted driving?

We canB次元官网网址檛 say for sure.

History has shown us, however, that sometimes we need to force people into making better decisions by hitting them in the wallet, before their bad decisions kill someone.

We knew for years that seat belts saved lives before we started using them en masse, but it wasnB次元官网网址檛 until we started fining people for not wearing them that people began instinctively buckling up.

If the current fine structure isnB次元官网网址檛 doing it, raise it.

These numbers need to come down.