Canada continues to wage a war on ‘distracted driving’ – which is any activity that takes your focus off driving and diverts it elsewhere. This can happen when you eat while you are driving, fiddle with the radio or GPS or picking up something you dropped on the floor, but the worst scenario is playing with your smartphone – especially texting while driving. When you text while driving, you increase your chances of being in a car accident by 23 times. Not only can you hurt yourself, but also you can cause serious damage to another person.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is a national association that represents Canada’s private insurance companies – auto included. The have started a new campaign to raise Canadian drivers awareness of the problem and to encourage that they put down their mobile devices while driving. The #LikeLife promotion includes a short film to help ‘drive’ the message home and you can watch it below. This is not as gruesome a film as some of the other videos regarding this topic, but you get the point. Sally Turney, Vice-President, Communications, IBC said, “Unfortunately we continue to see an increasing number of drivers engaging on social media. Whether checking their Twitter feed, scrolling through their Facebook timeline, or looking at their friend’s posts on Instagram – we urge drivers to put the phone down. Our message is simple: Your life is worth more than a Like. By using your phone behind the wheel you’re not only breaking the law, you’re putting your life and the lives of others on the road at risk.”
Using a smartphone while driving appears to be like an addiction with most people – young and old included – but even after much legislation to raise fines and hand out stronger penalties, tickets for distracted driving are on the increase. Not so long ago, mobile devices were few and far between and we actually had to wait until we got back home and listen to an answering machine to find out if anybody wanted to get in touch with us. We now call those voice mails, and yes, they too are part of distracted driving.