Gotcha, Didn't I?

RCMP Const. Bryan Martell dressed as a panhandler last Saturday to catch drivers talking on their cellphones in B.C.. More than 20 tickets were handed out.  Photograph by: Chilliwack Times

Driving isn't rocket science, but it does require vigilance and care and skill.  Without diligence to the matter at hand, viewing the road ahead and the other traffic on it, taking care that your responses are right on cue, and reacting to ever-changing circumstances, accidents can, and do occur.  There are laws in Canada against being distracted while driving, using a cellphone.

But people use them regularly, regardless.  It is illegal to view a television set while driving, but long-distance truck drivers, bored and certain they're in control, view television while driving.  People are wedded to their cellphones, cannot stand to be away from them, feel compelled to use them whenever and wherever they please, including behind the wheel of a vehicle.

They engage in subterfuge and feints if they think they're being observed, and without directly witnessing what they're about, they will deny they did any such thing, perish the thought.  So police forces throughout Canada have thought up a neat little scheme whereby they are able to get up close and fairly personal, close enough to see with their own beady little eyes that yes, that driver is texting or talking.

They've engineered a new kind of game with serious consequences for the malefactor.  Dressed casually-grubby as though they are panhandlers whom the driving public has become accustomed to ignoring on many roads, they approach vehicles stopped at traffic lights if they suspect the driver is using a cellphone. 

Viewing the cellphone in use, the policeman proffers a hand-written sign advising the driver he/she is about to be ticketed.

"Cellphone users, you can see them holding their phone up to their ear, but those texting - you see them driving around with their head down but you can't see the device.  It's hard to prove they were texting.  By the time we pull them over they have put it away and deny it."


"We understand people will be upset.  Nobody likes to get a ticket.  Bu the other 90% of the people, they thought it was great.  People were saying it's about time."


"Distracted driving is so rampant.  We need to send the message: put the phone in your purse or in the trunk or in the back seat, anything to help you avoid the temptation of that buzzing.?


"How would you deal with distracted driving when you are in a marked cruiser you can see a mile away?  They see you, put the phone down and sit back straight until the officer is out of sight and then go right back to it.  People have to learn and if that means officers not being visible then that's the way to do it."

A-men.