Last year in BC, there were about 350 thousand vehicle crashes with the worst of them causing death or serious injury. The primary causes remain distractions, speed and impairment.
Paul Hergott is a personal injury lawyer with offices in West Kelowna and Kelowna. He says cell phones are still the biggest distraction and blames the provincial government for banning the use of hand held cell phones while driving but did not banning hands free cell phone use. Hergott is an advocate of total ban.
One of the disproportionate facts in the statistics is that more than three times as many male drivers die in crashes than female. Hergott says young men tend to have a need for speed. He adds that increased speed dramatically reduces the drivers ability to react in time when faced with dangerous circumstances.
And with marajuana legalization just around the corner, Hergott says there will be more attention on smoking and driving.
