When RCMP Insp. Chris MacNaughton arrived in Kings County, N.S., two years ago, she was surprised by the number of people she saw driving while distracted.
"It was very noticeable to me that a very high number of cars that went by were driven by people on their cell phones talking," says MacNaughton, the officer in charge of the Kings District detachment.
After a number of fatal motor vehicle collisions involving young people were linked to distracted driving and cell phone use, road safety was identified as a priority in the province. But MacNaughton knew enforcement alone wasn't enough — they needed to educate people on the dangers of distracted driving.
She teamed up with Sgt. Andrew Buckle, head of Annapolis Valley Traffic Services in neighbouring Wolfville Detachment, to form the Kings County Distracted Driving Committee.
"It's a community-driven committee that consists of local and national partners and high school students to tackle the issue of distracted driving locally," says Buckle. "Our goal is to try to reduce the amount of serious injury and fatal crashes caused by it."
To do this, the committee developed an action plan and the slogan Focus and Drive.
Local high schools students designed a logo and poster for the initiative as part of a contest. And the winning design was used to make vehicle stickers, key chains and posters that are distributed to drivers, the first of which were given out at a checkpoint as part of the launch earlier this year.
They also have public service announcements running on local radio and they plan to put up road signs across the county.
Since distracted driving is a problem for all age groups, MacNaughton says they've created an interactive educational workshop that's based on the thinking patterns and psychology of each target audience, from high school students to seniors groups. And Kings District RCMP designed and built a distracted driving simulator, which they bring to all presentations.
"And we're just getting started," says MacNaughton." We want each resident of Kings County to say, 'I'm not going to be a distracted driver.' "