Glaring at your phone for a split second or flipping through your music playlist may seem harmless in contrast to drinking and driving. Drunken driving is treated as a serious criminal offence, and carries a strong social stigma. Until we reach the point where using digital devices while driving is just as unacceptable as drunken driving, new laws will not be tough enough, or taken seriously. The issue that many drivers face is distracted driving laws are not always heavily enforced as policer officers have a hard time trying prove that the accused was on their digital device. With distracted driving being normalized by millennial’s we need to change the attitudes toward this and make it socially unacceptable like drinking and driving is. In Ontario last month, deaths attributed to distracted driving were double that of impaired driving 38 versus 19. Distracted driving all together accounts for 80 per cent of collisions and 65 per cent of near crashes and economically cause $25 billion per year, which includes direct and indirect costs (Traffic Injury Research Foundation). This number is shocking as distracted …show more content…
In my opinion I think an $80 - $1200 fine and taking away demerit points is nowhere near compensating for someones life. Where when you look at drinking and driving charges for a first offence being a fine of $600 to $2000, revocation of driving privileges for one year from the date of conviction (not the date of being charged), completion of an Addiction/Drug Dependency Services assessment program ($455.00, your cost), licence reinstatement fee of $124.60 (your cost) and you might also be required to be re-take any and all of your driver's tests, including written, road, and vision tests (novascotia.ca). My question is why does drinking and driving have harsher penalties when distracted driving deaths and accidents are surpassing those of drinking and