Manitoba drivers are still not getting the message when it comes to distracted driving.
Over 400 tickets were issued for the offence in Winnipeg alone during the month of April.
“It’s all over the map as far as what people are doing,” said Insp. Gord Spado of the Winnipeg Police Service.
Police have handed out tickets to people with phones in their lap, in their cup holders, on their dashboards, and even wedged behind their steering wheel.
The only way to legally use your phone while driving is if it’s properly mounted to your windshield, your dashboard, or one of your vents, Spado said.
“You’re allowed to touch the phone once to accept a call, once to end a call and once to initiate a call.”
When it comes to using a GPS app, or a portable GPS device itself, ‘one touching’ is strictly prohibited.
“You want to program your destinations first and then just use it for directions but you cannot touch it for that purpose,” Spado said.
As far as listening to music goes, the ‘one-touch’ rule comes back into effect.
“If I have music playing and want to hit next to the next song, that would be a reasonable one-touch operation,” he said.
But don’t expect to be able to scroll through your playlist searching for a song.
“If I’m doing a series of touches in a short time frame that is now going to be beyond the scope of a one-touch operation.”
Winnipeg Police expect the number of distracted driving tickets to soar above 500 per month in June and July.
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