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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2015
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Distracted driving reaps $5 M for Alta. TRAFFIC LAWS
Police say about 26,000 tickets issued in Calgary since 2011 Lucie Edwardson
Metro | Calgary The province is capitalizing on the foolishness of many Albertans who continue to text, groom, read and much more, all while behind the wheel. Since the 2011 inception of Alberta’s distracted driving law, the province has issued more than 86,000 tickets, and with 27,417 convictions in 2014-15 alone, the province is pocketing nearly $5 million annually off the $172 per-ticket offence, according to
statistics provided by Alberta’s justice and transportation ministries. Calgary police Staff Sgt. Paul Stacey said, in Calgary alone, they have issued around 26,000 tickets since 2011. “The law is pretty clear,” he said. “It’s set up that if one of those offences is causing a distraction, or if you’re doing it while behind the wheel then you can receive a distracted driving ticket.” Although tickets issued for phone use have remained steady for the last three years, at around 24,000 provincially, the number of tickets issued for using other electronic devices such as laptops, iPads and games has more than quadrupled from 486 tickets issued in 2012-2013 to 2,565 tickets issued in 2014-2015. “We have actually over a million vehicles registered in Calgary alone, so that is a lot of cars on the road and a lot of people that are going to take their chances,” said Stacey.