Richmond Mounties and police volunteers have been out in force over the last week or so, driving home the message about not being distracted behind the wheel.
Today (Tuesday) the team camped out at No. 3 Road and Westminster Highway, where they pulled over eight vehicles out of the 12 where drivers were spotted using their phones.
“The vast majority of drivers observed today were following the law and ‘leaving their phone alone,’” said Richmond RCMP’s Cpl. Adriana O’Malley.
“Out of the 419 vehicles that passed, only 12 drivers were observed using their cell phones. Unfortunately, four vehicles were not able to be stopped. Of the eight drivers stopped, all were issued written warnings.”
O’Malley said the main objective of today’s operation – which is part of the month-long distracted driving campaign along with ICBC - was to educate drivers around the risks.
She added that the decision to issue a violation ticket is based on a number of factors, including the evidence collected as well as a driver’s history and previous convictions for the same offence.
This is the third targeted operation conducted since the beginning of this month’s campaign.
During last week’s operations, between 600 and 800 vehicles passed through the targeted areas.
Out of those, 10 drivers were issued written warnings, four were issued violation tickets and one prohibited driver was stopped.
Richmond RCMP said it will be conducting distracted driving checks at various locations throughout the month.
If you are caught using your cellphone while driving in B.C. you could be hit with a $368 ticket.
