(Government of Saskatchewan handout)

By CKOM News

SGI records drop in distracted driving tickets

Jan 22, 2020 | 5:49 PM

Increasing fines for distracted driving may be getting the attention of Saskatchewan drivers.

On Wednesday, SGI revealed that police officers in the province handed out 534 tickets for distracted driving in December — the lowest total for any month in 2019.

It was the second straight month in which below-average numbers of distracted driving offences were recorded. In November, 653 tickets were issued for distracted driving.

Over the first 10 months of the year, the average for those tickets was nearly 900 — and that included an all-time record of 1,290 in October.

“It’s too soon to draw any conclusions about what this means, but hopefully it’s the start of a trend of fewer people driving distracted,” SGI said in a media release. “It’s a potentially deadly mistake and — starting in February — it will be a much more costly one.”

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The fines for distracted driving are to increase Feb. 1, with a ticket for a first offence going from $280 to $580.

Even though the numbers in December were lower, there still were 408 tickets for cellphone use behind the wheel.

Officers in December also handed out 4,722 tickets for speeding or aggressive driving and 309 tickets for improper seatbelt or child restraint use.

The focus of the December Traffic Spotlight was impaired driving — and there were 295 such offences, including 249 charges under the Criminal Code.