VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Is our province’s public auto insurer providing us with misleading information about distracted driving and its consequences?
A lawyer has new numbers suggesting cell phone use is not as big a factor in road deaths as we’ve been led to believe by ICBC.
Just 14 deaths between 2008 and 2016 have been linked to people using electronic devices behind the wheel, according to the BC Coroner’s service — in contrast to ICBC’s website, which says 78 people die due to distracted driving each year.
Lawyer Paul Doroshenko with Acumen Law got that information by filing a freedom of information request — and feels we need to rethink the penalties for distracted driving as a result.
“I think it’s got to be a different offense if you’ve got your cell phone sitting beside you, as opposed to tooling down the road taking selfies while driving,” says Doroshenko, who says not all cases of distracted driving pose an equal risk to other drivers.
Clipped from News1130 radio:
Full story at News1130:
http://www.news1130.com/2018/01/30/lawyer-claims-icbc-provides-misleading-distracted-driving-stats/