Pretty soon cops will stop warning people not to fasten their in-car GPS units in the
middle of the windshield, rather than down in the l
ower-left corner.
The current “education campaign” will eventually turn to
$110 tickets like everything else.
“Hopefully people will appreciate that I’m giving them a break,” said east division traffic Sgt. Mark Gatien. “That’s what I’ll do to start with and that’s what I’ve instructed my officers to do.”
But, if he can prove that distraction or obstruction by GPS is the cause of a crash — all bets are off.
“I will charge them,” he said.
In a Sun ride-along Wednesday morning on the 174 in Orleans, counting illegally-mounted GPS units quickly turned to double digits. At one point, six went by while Gatien pulled a person over.
GPS units fall into at least two categories of driving badness — distraction and obstruction. Gatien said this is not only a recipe for crashes, but dead pedestrians and children.
“You can’t put it under the mirror,” said Gatien. “I’ve seen one right in front of the driver’s face, which is incredible. What were they thinking?”
To prove his point, he demonstrates depth perspective. Holding up a GPS unit against the windshield, he’s able to completely obscure a bicycle only a few feet away.
“If you just plunk it anywhere you feel like, where you think it’s nice and handy for you to look at, it could be obstructing your clear view,” he said. “You’d be surprised what can hide behind something that small.”
One of the drivers stopped admitted the unit was placed in the middle of the windshield for aesthetics.
“But it looks good there,” the man said.
“Oh, it looks sharp, ya,” Gatien answers, the humour not lost on him.
“This is a ridiculously fast phone,” the man replies. “You’re an Apple person, that’s why you pulled me over. This is an Android phone.”
All of the drivers stopped took their GPSs down without complaint. One woman told Gatien she didn’t really kniow whay she had it on at all.
“I’m just heading to work, so I know where I’m going,” she said.
Another man decided to flick his cigarette butt out the driver’s side window as Gatien was explaining GPS obstruction.
“That’s littering,” he said. “You can pick that up when you’re moving your GPS.”
http://www.ottawasun.com/2011/12/14/fines-upcoming-for-sloppy-gps-locations
