If you still need to be convinced to leave the phone alone while driving, the hospital emergency room is a good place to do it.
And with the rates of fatalities and injuries from distracted driving on the rise, the Eagle Ridge Hospital Foundation is partnering with the Community Against Preventable Injuries (Preventable) to raise awareness about the dangers of picking up the phone while behind the wheel.
"People in the community don't see the danger, they don't see it as being a risk to look at a text or answer the phone," said Dr. Mike Mostrenko, a surgeon at Eagle Ridge Hospital, "but we see it in the emergency room."
Delivering bad news to loved ones is "the worst part of our job," Mostrenko said, particularly when it comes from the lapse in judgement of a distracted driving crash. The families are left to suffer with the loss forever and, when a crash has resulted in permanent disability, "it completely changes the lives of the people around them."
From 2008 to 2013, there were 11 fatalities due to distracted driving in the Tri-Cities, according to Preventable, which says just five seconds of texting while driving at highway speeds is like driving blindfolded for the length of a football field.
"Despite our efforts to raise awareness, we just can't do enough," said Mostrenko, who knows first-hand the dangers of distracted driving.
In 2006, Mostrenko was on his way to work a trauma shift at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster when he was injured in a crash; the other driver, who was also injured, was talking on the phone.
Less than two weeks ago, he treated a woman in the emergency room who admitted to picking up the phone and then rear-ending someone at 40 km/h.
"We have to ask ourselves the question, 'Is it really that important?'" Mostrenko said.
ERHF is hoping the campaign partnership with Preventable will encourage more motorists to turn off their phones, use an app that disables texting while driving or get passengers to receive and send texts or calls.
They're also reminding pedestrians and cyclists to dress appropriately for the dark, rainy weather and to never assume a driver has seen them or to presume their right-of-way will keep them safe.
• Visit www.preventable.ca for more information.
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