Last updated: January 30, 2023
In Saskatchewan, fines for electronic distracted driving more than doubled on Feb. 1, 2020. “Enough is enough,” said Joe Hargrave, the minister who oversees Saskatchewan Government Insurance. A first offense will bring distracted drivers a $580 fine plus 4 demerit points vs. the license. A second offense within a year brings a $1,400 citation, plus 4 points and a weeklong vehicle seizure. A third offense brings a $2,100 fine, and another 4 points and the seizure. “Yes, the tickets are costly,” Hargrave says. “Don’t want to get one? It’s easy. Put the phone down, keep your head up and focus on the road.”
MLA Joe Hargrave said distraction was the top factor in preventable injuries and collisions on the province’s roadways. “Yes, the tickets are costly,” Hargrave said of new punishments announced in November 2019. “Don’t want to get one? It’s easy. Put the phone down, keep your head up, and focus on the road.” View the SGI release about the new Saskatchewan distracted driving fines.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe previewed the crackdown on distracted drivers. Fines were expected to increase to a level consistent with those for drunken driving. Lt.-Gov. Russ Mirasty said during the fall 2019 throne speech that cell phone use was “one of the leading factors in collisions and injuries from automobile crashes in Saskatchewan.”
In Saskatchewan, officials reported 711 distracted driving citations handed out in March 2018. That’s a record for the four-year period in which Saskatchewan Government Insurance tracked the offense. The previous high was 636 in November 2017.
In Regina, Saskatchewan, 1,087 distracted driving charges were brought between January and November 2017. That’s up from 574 in the same period in 2016. The BusCop enforcement sweep — in which police ride metro buses to catch violators — gets part of the credit.
In Saskatchewan, distracted driving ticketing hit another record in November 2017. Police reported 636 distracted driving citations, 554 of them linked to cell phone use.
Saskatchewan officials say distracted driving is the No. 1 factor in vehicle crashes in the province, and the No. 2 cause of roadway fatalities. In 2016, Saskatchewan saw about 8,300 vehicle crashes linked to distracted driving, officials said in reporting the statistics in October 2017. Fatalities associated with distracted driving have increased in each of the past three years, Saskatchewan Government Insurance said, with 42 in 2016. The amount of distracted driving incidents is “not getting better,” an SGI spokesman said.
Saskatchewan police say March 2017 hit a record number of distracted driving tickets. The 523 tickets far exceeded the number of impaired driving offenses (318). The increase most likely is linked to changes in the distracted driving law as of Jan. 1, below.
Saskatchewan government officials updated the electronic distracted driving laws in 2017. Courts found the previous wording vague or incomplete, so an amendment to the Traffic Safety Law outlaws “holding, viewing or manipulating” cell phones as well as “using” them. The changes went into effect Jan. 1, 2017. The exact wording: “Drivers prohibited from holding, viewing, using or manipulating a cell phone while driving.”
Saskatchewan’s police chief says he isn’t in favor of criminalizing cell phone violations. “I’m thinking it might be more useful to find alternatives” similar to those employed for drunken driving, Chief Clive Weighill told CBC radio in late August 2016. For example, after a second texting & driving offense, “the police immediately seize your vehicle.” Weighill’s comments came days after Quebec’s new transport minister lobbied the federal government for criminal penalties in serious cases of distracted driving.
Saskatchewan convictions for handheld cell phone use numbered 4,300 in 2015, the government insurance outfit reported in mid-2016. That was down from almost 5,000 the year before.
In Saskatchewan, distracted driving-related traffic fatalities numbered 26 in 2014, with about 600 injuries. Distraction remains the top cause of wrecks, and the third-most-cited contributing factor in fatal collisions, Saskatchewan Government Insurance says. That’s a “significant decrease” from 2013, SGI says. A 2014 law that allows for weeklong seizure of a serial offender’s vehicle has resulted in 35 impounds.
Saskatchewan’s traffic safety committee chairman says the law against use of handheld cell phones needs to include “holding” the phones as an offense. The issue dates back to an appeals court ruling in which a driver successfully argued that he was simply moving his cell phone, not using it. The traffic panel is drafting a proposal to include the more specific wording, the chairman, MLA Darryl Hickie, said in mid-July 2013. He said it was “very frustrating” to see widespread use of handheld communications devices by drivers.
The RCMP in Saskatchewan say distracted driving has overtaken drunken driving as the leading cause of deaths on its roads. “In 2012, distracted driving became the number one cause of fatal collisions in our province,” a spokesman said in July 2013. Saskatoon police wrote more than 2,000 tickets for distracted driving in the year. In the first six months of 2013, they handed out 1,245 tickets.
Distracted driving contributed to at least 57 deaths and 2,100 injuries on Saskatchewan roads in 2012, SGI reported in early January. The number of deaths was later reported as 60. The province conducted its sixth distracted driving sweep in March 2013.
Saskatchewan: In the first 18 months of the province’s cell phone and texting law, almost 3,500 drivers were convicted of violations. The law became effective Jan. 1, 2010. Officials say a quarter of crashes in the province are linked to distracted driving and it is the No. 1 traffic danger. A deadly car-truck crash on Highway 14 near Grandora was being investigated as the result of a woman’s cell phone use. The Langham woman and her young daughter died in the January 2012 accident.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says the province’s efforts against distracted driving won’t be extended to a total ban on cell phones. “This is a serious issue, but we need to be able to say at some point it’s up to individuals to be careful when they drive,” Wall told reporters Jan. 31.
Saskatchewan drivers ranked distracted driving above impaired driving as a roadway danger. 94 percent cited electronic distracted driving as a major problem in the Saskatchewan Government Insurance survey taken in September 2011.
In Saskatchewan in 2010, there were about 8,500 collisions linked to distracted driving, with 60 deaths and about 2,300 injuries.
Saskatchewan’s ban on text messaging and use of handheld cell phones took effect Jan. 1, 2010. June Draude, minister for Saskatchewan Government Insurance, introduced the legislation Nov. 12 and it passed a final reading on Nov. 25. New drivers also will be prohibited from any cell phone use. Violators are to be fined $280 and will receive four demerit points.
Regina, Saskatchewan, police say they wrote almost 500 tickets for cell phone use in 2010. 31 warnings were handed out as well.
A Saskatchewan poll taken in September 2009 indicated that 60 percent of residents “strongly support” bans on cell phone use and text messaging by drivers. … Saskatoon’s police chief has called for cell phoning and texting to be outlawed for motorists.
