Ontario Transportation Minister Jim Bradley announced last weekend that the Liberal government plans to introduce legislation to ban drivers from using cell phones and other electronic devices such as Blackberries and even GPS units. With a majority government and an ineffective opposition, the proposed legislation has no chance of failing.
Premier Dalton McGuinty was against the cell phone ban before he was for it. But Dalton is no John Kerry. When he initially opposed the ban on the grounds that it was going too far, we all knew that he would eventually change his mind. He just can’t resist micromanaging peoples’ lives. The fact that such jurisdictions as Quebec and New York State beat Ontario at banning cell phone use by drivers must be a great embarrassment to Ontario’s nanny state government.
The theory behind the ban is of course that these electronic gadgets distract those who use them while driving and this leads to accidents. But as is regularly pointed out Ontario already has a law, careless driving, that penalizes those who drive “without due care and attention”. It is one of the most serious driving offences under the provincial Highway Traffic Act in terms of demerit points and the possibility of jail and a licence suspension upon conviction. But modern lawmakers seem to like the idea that if a current law is not working rather than step up enforcement the answer is to pass another one. This makes the legislators feel good about themselves. They make good money and the more restrictive laws they pass, the more they feel as though they are earning their money.
McGuinty’s initial reaction was the right one – a cell phone ban is going too far. The new law is being proposed not because it is necessary but because it is trendy. Cell phones, Blackberries and other “electronics” are not the only things that can distract a driver. One of the most common other distraction is drinking a beverage, especially a hot one while driving. No one seems to be suggesting to automobile manufacturers that they refrain from making this activity harder by not putting convenient cup holders within reach of the driver. As anyone who has ever attempted to drink a cup of hot coffee (and we know it’s hot because it says so on the cup) with a loose lid while going over a pothole knows, it can be a lot more distracting than a quick call to a person advising them that you will be arriving a few minutes late for your meeting.
And then there is a proliferation of drive-through restaurants that of course encourage people to drive while munching on a hamburger whose special sauce and lettuce are oozing out all over the driver’s clothes. But eating and drinking while driving are not considered serious enough to warrant specific prohibitions. If a parent sees a child killed by a driver it will probably be no consolation if the child’s death results from the distraction of spilling hot coffee rather than talking on a phone.
There is another line of thought that these cell phone bans are nothing more than a cash grab. It is a lot easier for a police officer to observe a driver with a phone up to his or her ear than it is to spot other distracting activities such as taking a quick sip of hot coffee. There is not much point in making something like this illegal if it’s too difficult for police to spot and help fill up the rapidly depleting provincial coffers.
We’ll have a lot to look forward to after this legislation is passed in the fall. Watch for OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino, who never met a camera he didn’t like, go on television and brag about how he, in his top cop clothes, personally went out and busted some middle aged woman who was talking on a cell phone while travelling up the 400 at the posted speed limit.
The proposed legislation is just one more example of blaming inanimate objects for a societal problem rather than placing the blame where it belongs – on people.
