Distracted driving deaths up 40 per cent in Ontario compared to last year

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says the number of fatal collisions caused by distracted driving on the roads it patrols has increased more 40 per cent compared to this time last year.

The OPP primarily patrols the province’s highways and says it has recorded a total of 296 fatal crashes so far this year – of those, 63 people were killed in collisions where inattentiveness was the main cause.

This is compared to mid-October’s number in 2023 that saw a total of 287 people killed in collisions, where 43 of those were due to distracted driving.

“It’s surprising because I’ve seen the number grow over the years,” said OPP Highway Safety Division Sgt. Sami Nasr, who adds that there could be a multitude of reasons why a driver would be distracted, but that most of the cases involve cellphones.

“You can use the touch-free features on the motor vehicle, but you just can’t touch your phone while driving,” Nasr added in an interview with CTV News on Saturday.

Distracted driving fines can be as high as $1,000 and include a three-day suspension for a first offence.

Psychologists say that, for many, driving becomes a simple background activity and our frequent cellphone use makes our brain crave constant hits of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward.

“You might think the need to stay alive would override everything, but once people learn how to drive, it becomes a background task they can do and so they’re not paying attention to what’s going on around them,” Tony Volk, a professor of psychology at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., said over a Zoom interview Saturday. “And so the allure of that dopamine hit from responding to an immediate message or sending a message is almost a routine they’re engaged in.”

Meanwhile, Jay Olsen, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto Mississauga, says it takes your mind some time to focus from your phone back onto the road, creating a slower reaction time.

“When people change their attention to something else, there’s something called a ‘switch cost,'” Olsen said. “So changing your attention to do another task and change it back, it slows this kind of switch. So if something unexpected happens on the road, your reaction time is slower to reengage your attention.”