Operation Handsfree Blitz isn't a new military strategy; it's an SGI plan, executed by local law enforcement all over the province to crack down on drivers using cellphones.
SGI research says that 92 per cent of Saskatchewan residents consider talking or texting while driving to be a major safety issue. I doubt the culprits are a mere eight per cent of us, however. Either this is a rule that individual people don't think applies to them, because they are such stupendous drivers, or we ask others to do as we say and not as we do.
It's probably more of the former. I've mentioned before that people tend to have a very bloated opinion of their own driving skills. I have an aunt who swears she can text without looking at her phone, and continue to drive like a champ, but that's what everyone who gets into an accident under those circumstances thinks too.
The SGI bulletin outed talking and texting as the main activities causing a disturbance on our roads, but really any use of a cellphone is questionable behaviour for a driver.
Playing Angry Birds may result in some disgruntled drivers around you, and if you weren't so focused on the furious feathers on your phone, you might be able to lend a little attention to the fur stuck in your grille from two kilometres back when you clipped Bambi.
Using the phone while driving has become pretty taboo in the last couple of years. Some people think it's so disrespectful to everyone else on the road that they'd look at those drivers with the same venomous eyes they would usually reserve for smokers who have wandered out of their segregated zones.
It will take a long time for cellphone users to kick the habit. Whenever something new comes along, it takes a while before the dangers are identified, and then twice as long to get everybody to really respect those dangers. I'm sure it took a long time for seat belts to earn their place among our safety staples, next to helmets and orange camouflage.
While on a landscaping crew a few years ago, I recall being the guy stuck in the middle of the front bench of the truck. A number of times the driver would whip out his phone to text something, so I was then expected to take the wheel for a brief time while he thumbed out his message. That may not have been the safest thing to do, but it was probably better than him continuing to steer with his priorities on his message and us passengers' priorities on not veering into the ditch.
Unfortunately, we don't always have a passenger at the ready to take the wheel every time our phones vibrate in our pockets.
People can be pretty bad at driving, especially when they have blinders in the way of their own mistakes. We don't need any more reasons to perform poorly behind the wheel. Hopefully the blitz can hasten how quickly we become accustomed to cellphone-less driving.ee
