Putting a stop to driving with CrackBerry

It didn't take long for the word to hit the street, but then, of course, that's where it originated.

On a downtown street.

I heard about it shortly after 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, which couldn't have been long after it happened.

Mayor Sam Katz's wife, Leah, was among a long list of drivers tagged by police on the first day of a month-long operation targeting drivers using hand-held devices. For emphasis, my informant, who couldn't help smiling about the delicious irony and the timing, said Leah was one of the first 10 drivers nabbed.

Later, a couple of reliable sources were able to confirm that, indeed, Mrs. Mayor was pulled over in a downtown "device" trap and slapped with a $199.80 ticket.

The mayor's office neither confirmed nor denied the report. Instead, his office told the Free Press it doesn't comment on His Worship's personal family matters.

How convenient.

But it's hardly just a personal matter if Mrs. Mayor -- who, like her husband, should be setting an example -- makes a conscious decision to disobey a traffic law that's aimed at preventing dangerous distracted driving.

Mind you, neither I nor many of you are in a position to judge her too harshly. The difference between what happened to Mrs. Mayor and people like many of you -- and shamefully even me in the past -- is we haven't been caught.

Still, that it could have happened on the first day of a publicized police operation suggests Mrs. Mayor wasn't paying attention to the news, that her husband didn't think to caution her police were out playing their own version of "tag, you're it," with drivers holding cellphones, or that neither of them thought it mattered.

If you know what I mean.

Mind you, the mayor and his wife may not be the only ones feeling a pinch of shame after Monday's police operation. The same street source who turned out to be right about Mrs. Mayor getting a ticket says a honcho at Manitoba Public Insurance was also swept up in the police net Monday, although an MPI spokesman couldn't confirm that.

If it's true, then that ticket would be even more embarrassing given MPI is spending $120,000 to pay the police overtime that's driving the Winnipeg Police Service, RCMP and Brandon Police Service roadside roundups.

As for how many were tagged in total Monday, oddly, when I asked, the Winnipeg police media messengers refused to disclose the number. They're not doing daily totals, I was told, which doesn't make sense given the purpose of the program is public awareness and deterrence.

Whatever the number of drivers nabbed Monday -- close to 100 I'm guessing -- it represents a fraction of the total who ignore the law every day. Either because they've been travelling in the CrackBerry lane too long to care, or more likely because they think they won't get caught.

Which is the same reason.

All of which makes me wonder why police can't be out running hand-held device operations such as this every month given how little it would cost MPI to back the program versus how much it would save in damage to vehicles, and more importantly, people's lives.

What we need out there on the road is an everyday sense that not only can drivers who use hand-held devices be caught, but they will be.

And that there will be consequences beyond a one-time fine of a couple of hundred bucks.

Manitoba, Alberta and Nova Scotia are the only provinces that don't have some form of a driver's licence demerit penalty attached to offences involving the use of hand-held devices in vehicles.

Would adding demerits make a difference?

Well, if seatbelt use is an indicator, it just might. Before demerits were added to fines for non-compliance, Manitoba ranked in the middle of the provincial pack for seatbelt use.

Now we're No. 3.

Demerits have to come, it's just a matter of time, or maybe some horrific collision caused by a driver texting or talking on a hand-held cellphone that finally forces the government to make the move quicker than it planned.

I'm guessing -- and hoping -- that in the meantime, Mrs. Mayor has learned a lesson so many other Winnipeggers still haven't. If only because what happened to her on the street, also hit the street.

And the newspaper.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 9, 2012 B1