It didn't take long for the Estevan Police Service to hand out their first distracted driving ticket under the new stiffer penalties from SGI. In fact, the heightened fines hadn't even been in place for two full days before they had handed out multiple tickets.

On February 1, SGI announced the price of a distracted driving ticket was skyrocketing to $580 for the first offense, with fines steadily increasing from there and penalties also including demerit points and temporary license suspensions. According to the EPS, it doesn't take much for these fines and penalties to pile up to the point where it isn't even close to worth it.

"Distracted driving kills a lot of people in the province of Saskatchewan," said sergeant Evan Handley of the EPS. "So, SGI has determined that one way to hopefully solve this issue is to increase the fines from $280 to $580 for the first offense, then $1400 for the second offense within one year. So what that means if you are found guilty of driving while holding, using, or manipulating an electronic communications device, if within one year from then you get caught again, your fine is going to be $1400. Plus you also lose your vehicle for seven days and lose four demerits off your drivers license."

Early returns show it might still be taking some time for drivers to get the message. According to the EPS bulletin, which Handley confirmed, they've already handed out several distracted driving tickets with much heftier price tags. And while people may be slow to respond at first, police are still hopeful this will deter them in the long run. 

"Speaking to other members, hopefully it will have an impact," Handley said. "When you talk to the public, they see it out there. They see people being distracted on the highways and the roadways. Hopefully this does help. Being that cellphones are so close to all of us nowadays, we do need to work on this and get this fixed as soon as possible so no one else is hurt on the road."

The EPS's reaction to the news was generally positive, and they weren't alone. Although Carlyle RCMP say they have not yet handed out any of the newly priced tickets, they're fully on board with the increase, and totally willing to hand them out if they see distracted driving. 

"I know SGI has given out notices, there's been commercials on the radio, I'm sure everyone is aware that it's gone up to $580 for your first offense," said RCMP corporal Mike Parker. "We haven't issued any tickets yet. That being said, we're not going to change our approach. If you're caught on your cellphone, you're most likely going to get a ticket." 

Parker's statement would indicate that the higher price of distracted driving tickets isn't going to make police any more reluctant to hand them out. And Handley would agree. 

"It's not like they just announced this on January 1st, they announced this last fall," he said. "So people have had a chance. They do know about this, it's not like this changed overnight. People just need to be aware. They need to stay off their phones or pull over to the side of the road and make their call that way."