Calgary police to use covert spotters to catch distracted drivers

[heavyD]

Originally posted by Maxt

This is true to some extent. I'd bet though if you could get the data, the length of text messages from moving vehicles has gotten shorter as the law tightened up.

Yeah there's less head bobbing while moving now. It used to be that every second woman was driving like she was giving head.

[bart]

if you cant drive and handle holding a phone at the same time then you shouldnt be

but it should be a retroactive penalty, if you cause accident because of phone it should be 5x the penalty vs normal situation

leave me alone

[88jbody]

I can say Ive cut my phone use wile in the car by at least 75% over the last 2 years. and now most use is when my car gps is not finding the address becasue its maps out of date by 4 years.
I keep bluetooth disabled on my phone becasue my phone charge doesnt last as long as it used to, and often forget to turn bluetooth on when getting in the car which if i can start remembering that ill probably use the phone even less.

if i happen to get caught using it I will just accept it, pay up.

I am very carefull of when i do use my phone best I can but with kids I do often need to answer calls. texting though I almost never text anymore in the car.

But can we get a crack down on people who cannot merge properly, and unsafe lane changes. or people who stop in a turn lane that has its own lane (deerfoot south to memorial west for one) seen so many close calls from people stopping there

[zipdoa]

Originally posted by bart
if you cant drive and handle holding a phone at the same time then you shouldnt be

but it should be a retroactive penalty, if you cause accident because of phone it should be 5x the penalty vs normal situation

leave me alone

bart driving to work, for reference:

[Maxt]

I was watching an interview with Ralph Gilles from SRT, and he said the fix is easy, just make every vehicle with a standard transmission.

[dirtsniffer]

Why should the cause of the accident matter. Cause any accident and you pay.

[ShermanEF9]

Originally posted by whiteout
Can't imagine the amount of pride that doing that would bring at the end of your day.

"Hi honey, did you catch any murderers today?"

"No"

"Investigate a B&E or catch a thief?"

"No"

"Stop someone from being assaulted or raped?"

"No"

"Well what did you do?"

"I hid at an intersection, took pictures of people who were stopped at a light checking their phone, then radioed someone else down the road to pull them over".

Most ignorant post of the year.

The cops will ALWAYS prioritize these types of things, and you god damn well know it.

This is probably conducted by the traffic team, which GUESS WHAT? Its their job.

[rx7_turbo2]

Originally posted by ShermanEF9
Most ignorant post of the year.

I doubt it even ranks in the top 10.

[speedog]

Originally posted by Maxt
I was watching an interview with Ralph Gilles from SRT, and he said the fix is easy, just make every vehicle with a standard transmission.

What difference would that make? People will still do things that distract them while operating their vehicle. Case in point, I was driving home on Deerfoot on Friday afternoon, came up on this Honda Civic not doing the speed limit in the middle lane and it was wandering from one side to the other. Move to the left lane and here is tis young Asian lady quite busy putting makeup on, doing eyelashes, powdering, putting some shit on with a brush, lipstick, the whole 9 yards with both hands involved at times. I dropped over to the right lane and followed her for a bit, she. Onto used to move about in her lane and also had very inconsistent speed. I very well doubt a manual transmission would've stopped her from what she was doing at 90-110kph.

I would like to say a localized cellular jammer would be the optimal way to go but then that would affect others in the vehicle and we just couldn't have that, eh.

[dino_martini]

Originally posted by OTown


How is the 0.5 legislation a money grab? As far as I know there are zero fines associated to that legislation. Its only meant to take drunks off the roads, and you don't get a ticket.

Under the criminal code you aren't criminally impaired until you blow .08 or higher. On this .05 legislation your car can be towed and impounded for three days and your license suspended for three days on a first offense. I don't know exactly where every cent of impound fees go, but I'm imaging a portion find their way into city and provincial coffers. You also have to pay $22 to have your license reinstated after 3 days, $13 of which goes to our friends in Edmonton.

I am not advocating for drinking and driving, it's a stupid thing to do. However if the Police and Province think .05 is the point where operating a vehicle becomes dangerous, why not lobby the Feds to change the Criminal Code to .05?

[ryder_23]

Originally posted by dino_martini

I am not advocating for drinking and driving, it's a stupid thing to do. However if the Police and Province think .05 is the point where operating a vehicle becomes dangerous, why not lobby the Feds to change the Criminal Code to .05?

No what they need to do is change the DUI criminal aspect to a TFSA act. This will make it easier to convict vs criminal code. Jack the fines and suspensions up. Only keep criminal if there is an accident or repeat offenders.

Make it easier to be guilty vs criminal code, and jack the fine to 30000$(or whatever), mandatory 1 year suspension, and avoid lawyers pulling criminal law BS excuses out of it vs TFSA...think that would have a bigger impact.

[dirtsniffer]

you think the police should have the ability to fine someone $30,000 under the traffic safety act?

give your head a shake..

[jwslam]

Originally posted by dirtsniffer
you think the police should have the ability to fine someone $30,000 under the traffic safety act?

give your head a shake..

Maybe force them to a driving school where the tuition is $30,000

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by dirtsniffer
you think the police should have the ability to fine someone $30,000 under the traffic safety act?

give your head a shake..

I personally would fully support $30K+++ fines for drunk driving. It should be so punishing it changes your life IMO. Only once confirmed via blood test and convicted by the court of course, not on a ticket through the window haha.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by ShermanEF9

Most ignorant post of the year.

The cops will ALWAYS prioritize these types of things, and you god damn well know it.

This is probably conducted by the traffic team, which GUESS WHAT? Its their job.

I'm not sure they do prioritize those things. I have a coworker who had done 99% of the police work other than arresting the individual, along with proof and witnesses for theft over $5000 (not to mention all the other stolen goods they probably would have found based on the other active kijiji ads the person had). All the police had to do was go see him, no exaggeration. The police didn't even look into it, and within a day or two her stolen goods were surely gone. She was told they might look into it 'tomorrow' because the person assigned to the case forgot their cell phone at home. Never heard back, never got her stuff back. Would have been the easiest 'win' for CPS and they weren't interested.