|
|
 
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Upload your random pictures (part 4)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Frank Cox
Film God
Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011
|
posted 03-27-2012 02:49 AM
After being sent just that photo the other day, I now found an actual news article about it. The article also includes a better quality photo.
News Article
quote:
At least in Chilliwack, police officers disguised as panhandlers have become the B.C. RCMP’s newest tool in cracking down on distracted driving.
Earlier this month, RCMP Const. Bryan Martell appeared at a Chilliwack-area intersection dressed in a hooded jacket and ball cap – and sporting a few day’s growth of beard.
Wandering alongside stopped vehicles he carried a cardboard sign reading “Hello, my name is Constable Martell. If you’re on your cell phone right now, you are about to get a ticket.”
If he spotted a driver texting talking on his cell phone, Cst. Martell radioed ahead to a uniformed officer who would then ticket the vehicle.
As a result of the one-day blitz, officers handed out 21 tickets and gave out countless verbal warnings, RCMP traffic officials told the Chilliwack Times.
Since February, 2010, British Columbians have been barred from using any sort of handheld electronic device while driving.
As of September, 2011, the legislation had generated nearly 50,000 tickets and according to the B.C. government, has saved 16 lives.
In July, 2011, a distracted Chilliwack RCMP officer was to blame for a head-on crash that killed a 20-year-old.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Randy Stankey
Film God
Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
|
posted 03-27-2012 01:02 PM
The population of British Columbia is 4.1 million.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=polulation+of+british+columbia
In 2009, the death rate of B.C. was 17.3 per 10,000 residents. (.173 percent.)
http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/coroners/publications/docs/annualreport2009.pdf
The number of people who died in motor vehicle accidents (as per the above report) was 1423. (27% of all deaths.)
Assuming that the police chief's estimate that 16 lives were saved as a result of his tactics are true, he reduced the overall number of deaths in British Columbia by 1.1%. It reduced the overall death rate by a small fraction of 1%.
Further, in his own report, the coroner states the following:
quote:
Rural areas in many jurisdictions have higher MVI fatality rates than urban areas. Suggested causal factors include:
•greater proportion of highway travel
•longer emergency response times
•greater distance to medical facilities.
It seems that the government could do more to prevent deaths by motor vehicle accident if it bought more ambulances and built more hospitals. Don't you think?
Of all motor vehicle deaths in 2009, 112 of them were drug and/or alcohol related.
Don't you think the police could do more to prevent motor vehicle deaths if, instead of paying cops to dress up like homeless people, they increased the number of D.U.I. checkpoints?
Even if you assume that all of the police chief's statistics are correct, the number of deaths prevented per dollar spent is way out of whack.
They handed out 21 tickets as a result of this campaign. Assuming a fine of $100 per ticket, that amounts to $2,100 collected in fines.
What is a police officer's salary? How many man-hours were spent on this project? What was the total cost of this?
I'm willing to bet that they spent way more than $2,100 to do this, pulling police officers off other duties where their time would be put to more productive use and possibly saving other lives.
They could have done more good by spending the money somewhere else.
This whole project amounts to nothing more than a circle jerk by your elected officials.
Why are people so fucking stupid that they accept this kind of mental masturbation?
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
|
posted 03-28-2012 02:54 PM
While it is dangerous to do anything that takes your eyes off the road, I think it's far MORE dangerous to be texting than doing things like, say, changing radio stations.
If you are fiddling with your car stereo, it's kind of a mindless activity. But when you're texting, you're kind of in a dream state because you're having to concentrate on what you're writing. In other words you can change radio stations while still thinking about driving, but you really can't do that with texting.
If I was running things, the penalty for the first offense of texting while driving would be a big fine, plus confiscation of the phone and cancellation of your cellphone account for at least a year.
Talking while driving is bad too, but at least you can still keep your eyes on the road while doing it. For that, I'd make the penalty less severe....say, suspension of your cellphone account for three months plus a fine.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
Printer-friendly view of this topic