Bob Layton: Do you text while driving?

I’m not sure how much good the distracted driving law does.

Alberta Transportation says there were 23,000 tickets issued related to distracted driving over the last two years, 18,000 of them for being on the phone. The problem exists right across the country.

READ MORE: ‘They’re addicted’: Saskatoon leading province in cell phone driving tickets

Even with ticket warnings, you still see people every day who are driving and talking on their handheld phones or texting at red lights.

If we can see them all around us then the police can, but they can’t pull them all over.

The fine in Alberta is less than $300 and three demerit points. Maybe some just consider it the cost of doing business, like taking a high-class client to lunch.

Watch: Albertans call for distracted driving charges

The cost is a lot higher in Ontario. First offenders there will now pay up to $1,000, lose some demerits and — the one that will get their attention — lose their driver’s licence for three days.

READ MORE: Tough new penalties now in effect in Ontario for distracted, impaired driving

I’ll be watching to see if the new penalties are enough to make drivers pay attention to the road and cut down on the number of distracted deaths and destroyed families on both sides of the phone.

READ MORE: Distracted driving is No. 1 cause of deaths on Ontario roads

I like to put my own twist on a request that a wife might send her husband:

“Be an angel and text me as you’re driving through the mountains.”

And he did. And he is.

Let me know what you think would stop distracted driving.