Safe Communities Humboldt and Area was understandably unable to host its PARTY program this year.
The PARTY (Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth) program promotes safe driving habits in youth ages 15 and older by showing the harsh reality of driving while impaired or distracted.
The event focuses on survivor stories of people who have lived through accidents involving distracted and impaired driving. It also includes professionals who speak on the horrific sights they have to endure on the job when young drivers are involved in accidents.
This was not the time to put students and professionals through such a difficult event, so close to the Humboldt Broncos crash, but the message still needs to be discussed.
“You must always drive with care, attention and reasonable consideration for other road users,” reads the SGI Drivers Handbook. “It is illegal for you, or any of your passengers, to perform stunts or other activities that distract, startle or interfere with other road users.”
When we get in a car, we are driving 4,000-pound vehicles up to 100 km/hr down the highway.
Of course we want our full attention to be on the road, on possible hazards on the side of the road, and on other drivers.
However, people often do not understand the depth of the issue. This was evident when the Humboldt RCMP spoke about efforts to detain and discourage distracted driving during the RCMP Town Hall in Humboldt back in March.
One woman questioned the RCMP’s focus on distracted driving, saying there are more important things the RCMP should be worrying about than a couple fender benders caused by people on their cell phones.
SGI sees this misunderstanding in the number of people who continue to drive distracted.
Distracted driving accounts for 18 per cent of collisions in Saskatchewan, according to the SGI website. It’s also responsible for, on average, 52 vehicle fatalities a year in the province.
This March, 711 distracted driving offences were reported by Saskatchewan RCMP, a record for the province. Of these, 583 tickets were for using a cell phone.
In 2016, young people between the ages of 15 and 20 years were the second most likely age group to be charged with distracted driving resulting in a collision.
People between the ages of 25 and 34 are the mostly likely to be charged.
These numbers show that people are not getting the message, according to the SGI press release.
“Distracted driving is the leading cause of all traffic collisions. In 2016, it was a factor in nearly 8,300 collisions, contributing to the deaths of 42 people and more than 1,200 injuries.”
We need to have discussions with young people about road safety, and the purpose of PARTY is to promote safe driving habits early to curb these trends.
Driving conditions can change in an instant. An animal may run into the road, or road conditions can quickly turn from good to poor.
When we are driving, we need 100 per cent of our attention on the road.
“Driving requires you to do more than two things at once – steering, braking, shifting gears and watching for traffic all occur at the same time. When you add distractions like eating, grooming, talking or texting on cell phones, the results can be disastrous,” according to the SGI website.
If the possibility of causing an accident does not scare people into putting their phones down, one would hope the $280 fine for distracted driving would keep their hands on the wheel.
