Drivers who voluntarily agree to disable their phones inside their vehicles could one day get a break on their auto insurance, under a plan being researched by the new NDP government.
Attorney General David Eby said he has directed the Insurance Corporation of B.C. to research the feasibility of offering insurance discounts to drivers who agree to technological measures that prevent their phones from being used, in an attempt to guard against the proliferation of distracted driving.
“Improving road safety is critical in getting a handle on distracted driving — people using cellphones,” Eby said in an interview. “So there are other technologies we’ve asked ICBC to prepare proposals around — for example, there are plug-ins for cars that people can voluntarily take on in exchange for a reduced premium, or that new drivers could take on, that would prevent them from using their phones while driving.
“I don’t know about the maturity of these technologies, or how pragmatic it is to be implementing them, but we should be looking at them and I’ve asked ICBC to do that.”
ICBC is scrambling to find ways to reduce costs, after an Ernst & Young report warned of possible rate hikes of 30 per cent for motorists unless the Crown auto insurer can rein in claims costs and legal fees. The report recommended caps on certain injury claims, as well as a return to photo radar, the use of red-light intersection cameras to catch speeders, and increased police enforcement to crack down on distracted driving.
Eby has ruled out photo radar and any move to no-fault insurance, but said he is researching the rest of the report.
ICBC actually began researching the topic in April, putting out a request for information from any companies that could provide market research and anti-distracted driving technology.
“We did receive information from several suppliers in the marketplace in response to our RFI, but, at this time, we are in the process of reviewing those responses and conducting supplementary research into whether and how these technologies are being used in other jurisdictions before determining next steps,” said ICBC spokesperson Adam Grossman.
There are a variety of emerging technologies that can keep drivers from access their smartphones to check email, social media accounts, make calls or play games. Some portable hardware exists that can dampen the phones inside a vehicle, preventing them from being operable while a car is in motion. In the United Kingdom, lawmakers are urging car manufacturers to consider built-in technology that would dampen phone usage.
But the easiest way at this time appears to be apps that drivers agree to install on their phones, which then disable those phones when a vehicle is moving. Apple has said the next operating system update for its iPhones will detect when someone is driving and silence that person’s incoming notifications. It can, however, be manually overridden.
Samsung is also developing an app that allows for automatic replies to text messages when a vehicle is moving, alerting the other person that the recipient is driving at the moment.
The number of distracted driving crashes is rising in B.C., and ICBC has said they now account for more than 27 per cent of all fatal car crashes in the province, with an average of 78 deaths a year. Drivers are five times as likely to crash if they are on their phone while behind the wheel, according to insurance research.
B.C. banned using phones while driving in 2010 (including when a person is stopped at a red light or in slow traffic), and there is currently a $368 fine, plus four penalty points, levied when caught.
