Stop the textademic

This morning on my way to work I was almost side swiped by a distracted driver; the only saving grace was today I was in my car instead of my normal transportation which is a motorcycle. The young lady was driving her newer model grey Hyundai Sonata south up bridge hill. She was in the very left lane and as we came around the corner she crept about 3 feet into the centre lane where I was driving. I was able to swerve right and avoid her. I pulled up beside her honking my horn and saw that she was engaged in her texting. We travelled in the same direction and I noted again at the highway and Boucherie Road intersection that she was still texting, even after a near miss and someone honking and yelling. As I said, I normally ride my motorcycle and this may have had a much worse ending as I would have been leaning in to the corner and she more than likely would have sent me to hospital or to an early grave.
 
As much as I would like to blame the RCMP and ICBC for not stepping up, they have so much to deal with on a daily basis this cannot be a priority, but it should be. There has been a lot of comparison to impaired driving and distracted driving including the number of accidents and deaths; perhaps it is time we increased the penalty to $750 and anyone caught doing this would have their phone confiscated and/or vehicle impounding as with impaired driving. I have seen one blitz by RCMP looking for distracted drivers, perhaps we need more.

I am simply fed up with this epidemic of texting and driving, if the message cannot wait then find a safe place to pull over and text.

Robin Carter