OPP safety blitz to focus on distracted drivers

TORONTO – There is a another good reason to pay attention on the roads today — the O-P-P are looking for distracted drivers.

Officers are ramping up their efforts to prevent drivers from texting or eating behind the wheel.

Police say 35 people died and more than one-thousand were injured in collisions last year where the driver was not paying attention.

It is also expensive — if you are caught chatting on a cellphone, the ticket is 155 dollars.

Other kinds of distracted driving, such as eating or searching for something in the car, can earn a careless driving charge.

Those fines range from 400 to two-thousand dollars and can also come with a licence suspension and even six months of jail time.

Get used to the extra attention — the police blitz is the first of four campaigns that will target distracted driving over the next 12 months.