115 comments

Cell phone use in Ontario while driving to be officially banned

Posted by & filed under Canadian Deals & Coupons.

It’s offi­cial.

It’s now ILLEGAL to talk on your cell phone in Ontario, text, or use an ipod while driving.

Ontario’s Bill 118, an amend­ment to the High­way Traf­fic Act is now in effect and bans dri­vers from using hand­held devices with dis­play screens while oper­at­ing a vehi­cle on the road. Here is a sum­mary of the new rules:
·Hold­ing or using a wire­less com­mu­ni­ca­tion device (a cell phone) or a portable elec­tronic enter­tain­ment device (iPod) while dri­ving is pro­hib­ited.
·Com­mer­cial GPS units along with sim­i­lar dashboard-mounted devices that pro­vide gauges and dis­plays relat­ing to logis­ti­cal or nav­i­ga­tion uses are per­mit­ted.
·Using a cell phone or wire­less com­mu­ni­ca­tion device in hands-free mode, as long as you’re not hold­ing it dur­ing use, is per­mit­ted.
·Using any device while pulled-over or parked in a way that you are not dis­rupt­ing traf­fic, is per­mit­ted.
·The sys­tems used by Ambu­lances, Fire Depart­ments, and Law Enforce­ment are exempt.

The ban is in effect as of Sep­tem­ber 1, 2009 and will carry a fine of $500. Demerit points will not be included but depend­ing upon the vio­la­tion, police will have the option to also use exist­ing care­less dri­ving laws for addi­tional penalties.

I for one always talk on my phone (bad me) but not any­more! I’m sure not tak­ing the risk of get­ting a $500 ticket. I did stop tex­ting and dri­ving a while ago though because that actu­ally involves look­ing down at the screen instead of the road and I real­ized that’s just plain dangerous.

What are your thoughts?

Will you stop talk­ing on your cell? Get a headset/ear piece? Just keep doing it any­way and hope you don’t get caught?

update: will be in effect THIS FALL, not Sep­tem­ber 1st

115 Responses to “Cell phone use in Ontario while driving to be officially banned”

  1. Kaldirris

    “Please explain why there are cup hold­ers in a car?“
    That’s an easy one … so that you have some­where (other than in your hands or between your knees — duh) to put your cup WHILE YOU’RE DRIVING!!!! Obvi­ously.
    Frankly, you should be doing NOTHING BUT DRIVING while your vehi­cle is in motion. I get sooooooo sick of see­ing these idiots cruis­ing down the road, look­ing at any­thing but the road in front of them, doing all sorts of stu­pid things — makeup, chat­ting on cell phones, etc, etc.

    And, you really should have 2 hands on the wheel at all times. Remem­ber your dri­ving test? You should have received demer­its for 1-handed dri­ving. Just because you now HAVE your license doesn’t mean you have carte blanche on the roads. There are still rules you need to fol­low, and if you don’t like them, take the bus.
    You have no right to risk MY life because you think you’re Jackie Stew­art in a dress.

  2. Kaldirris

    The seats recline in most cars, too — doesn’t mean your sup­posed to lid down while the car’s in motion, either.
    It’s a cry­ing shame that com­mon sense ISN’T.

  4. Ryan

    @ evilid

    I agree you have to take steps, but the law is say­ing that talk­ing on the phone is fine as long as its not in your hand, which is not true. Just kinda thought they shoulda banned it completely.

    @ melissa

    yes most peo­ple drive with 1 hand, but its not as safe. 2 hands on the wheel keep you more focused on what you’re doing and also more pre­pared for any emergency.

    2 per­sonal beefs:
    If your not pass­ing some­one get outa the left lane!
    Stop using the merger lane in rush hour to pass 6 cars!

  5. Mark

    Too many rules already. Too many free­doms being taken away every day. I think peo­ple should be respon­si­ble for them­selves and don’t need mommy and daddy gov­ern­ment telling us what to do. If some­one screws up and causes an acci­dent, they should pay the price and maybe will be more respon­si­ble next time.

  6. Trainm

    Maybe you boys,and girls, should get the story straight before pub­lish­ing time. There are a lot of peo­ple out there who think that what ever they read is LAW. You dope taken idiots should check with the MTO web site, not a sick site like this… Talk about jump­ing the gun.

  7. itsjustmebub

    Will be in effect
    Oct. 26

    and also Trainm … thanks for your opin­ion :)

  8. ycx21

    a bit disappointed

    this doesn’t start tilll oct 26

    why did the OP say offi­cial NOW

    i guess i should have checked the real news…

    i’ve been telling every­one what i’ve read from this thread too =(

  11. SYLVIA

    Thank you for all the detail! Yet another good piece of con­tent, it’s pre­cisely why My spouse and I returned to your weblog usually!

  12. colin

    Sell your Tim Hor­ton shares if Ontario fol­low the UK and ban eat­ing and drink­ing at the wheel!!

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