Do Ontarians Understand the New Distracted Driving Legislation?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) March 17, 2010 --

Eating, brushing your teeth, reading, watching movies, applying make-up, these are a few of the tasks police officers catch drivers do on a daily basis. It has been known for quite some time that the human brain can only focus on one task at a time yet it has taken many years for Ontario to pass a legislation banning distractions while driving. Now that the Government and police force have made great efforts to publicly educate Ontarians about the dangers of talking, texting, dialing or emailing on their mobile phones while driving we wanted to know if Ontarians were adhering to the new legislation.

In a recent survey performed by Sensors Quality Management Inc. almost half of the 400 Ontarians surveyed responded that they no longer use a cell phone at all when driving. Further, 39% of those still using a phone said they have adjusted to using only hands-free devices while driving both due to legal and safety issues.

While these numbers overwhelmingly suggest that Ontarians understand the implications of driving distracted, a large portion of those surveyed claimed that “making phone calls is less dangerous than texting” or that they only make calls when “it is safe to do so, such as at red lights.” One quick look around while you're driving will show you that there are still drivers who are not obeying the law. These are the individuals who need to be educated on the hazards of not paying attention while driving. It looks like there is a lot more work to be done in Ontario.

Sensors Quality Management Inc. (SQM) is a Toronto based supplier of Quality / Service Assurance and Market Research, services. Although the main focus of the business is Mystery Shopping Programs, SQM offers its world-wide clientèle a variety of other services, including: field merchandising, online comment cards, internal audit software, and integrated customer feedback programs.

For additional information, please contact:

Mr. David Lipton
Sensors Quality Management Inc.
Phone: 416-444-4491
Fax: 416-444-2422
davidl@sqm.ca

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