Distracted driver hits Toronto actor, appears to drive away from scene while on phone | GTAMotorcycle.com

Distracted driver hits Toronto actor, appears to drive away from scene while on phone

matthew

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https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/cana...-phone/ar-AAygEa3?li=AAggNb9&ocid=mailsignout


https://www.facebook.com/billyjoemaclellan/videos/10155988345564760/

[FONT=&quot]A Toronto actor says he's disappointed and frustrated after a distracted driver hit him with her vehicle and appeared to be on her phone again when driving away from the scene of the accident.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Billy MacLellan, who has appeared on several Canadian series, including CBC's Caught andBellevue , says he was travelling north on Avenue Road on his motorcycle last month when he was hit by the driver, who appeared to be on her phone. MacLellan wasn't hurt and the motorist apologized profusely before driving off.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]He caught the collision on his GoPro and says he was in disbelief that it even happened considering he was wearing a bright yellow jacket in broad daylight.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]"When I drive, I try to do everything in my power to get home in one piece," he told CBC Toronto, adding that he already lost a cousin in a motorcycle accident in 2000.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]"I didn't have a black leather jacket on. There wasn't too much more I could have been doing to do the right thing."[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]MacLellan felt the driver didn't quite understand how much worse the collision could have been.


[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]"I said to her at one point, 'You could have killed me,' because I felt like she wasn't taking it serious," he said. "She said, 'I swear on my life I'll never do it again.' And I believed her."[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But by sheer coincidence, he caught up to her a few minutes later near Oriole Parkway and Eglinton Avenue and was shocked by what he saw.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]"I'm driving beside her passenger window and she still doesn't recognize me because she hasn't looked up from her phone in about the last 40 seconds," he said. "I honked my horn at her and she dropped her phone like a hot potato."[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]MacLellan says the woman then pulled up to his right to stick her head out her window to apologize once again.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]"I was done by then because she was driving so close to me and in the same lane as me, I started to get a little bit worried," he said. "I didn't think something really bad was going to happen, but I was done. I was done."[/FONT]
[h=2]Crash footage goes viral[/h][FONT=&quot]He uploaded video of the incident on Facebook, where it racked up over 67,000 views and nearly 900 shares in less than a week.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]"So many people online are saying, 'You've handled it so much better than I would have handled it,' but I wasn't angry. You could sort of hear it in my voice how disappointed I was."[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Police say they are investigating the video and stress that distracted driving is dangerous.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]"What a lot of people don't recognize is that using a cell phone is actually putting somebody's life at risk — maybe your own, maybe somebody else's. I think the video does show that." Const. Clint Stibbe of Toronto police's Traffic Services says.


[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The incident last month left MacLellan nervous to be on the roads but also more aware of distracted driving as a whole.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]"One woman was more focused on the passenger seat than she was on her own driving," he said. "The thing that made me sad was that I could see from the back and the side that her rear car window was full of little stickers and beside a car seat."[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]MacLellan says he's lost count of how many times he has seen someone driving a car while on their phone with their child in the backseat. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]"If that was someone who had a beer or a bottle of rum with them, you could smash the window out, and throw away their keys and you'd be a hero," he said. "Because it's a phone, everyone is taking this dangerous thing and accepting it as that's just the way it is."[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]He says he hopes some good will come out of the incident with the distracted driver last month.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]"I hope a few people realize how little has to go wrong," he said. "It's a matter of seconds and inches whether someone's going to get home at suppertime or whether they're not."[/FONT]
 
The rider seems to have class, and didnt post her license plate up
 
... or her face really. I think there should be a shaming campaign
 
Notwithstanding the impending TPS action and other social justice, and with no disrespect to the rider whatsoever, I suggest that in such traffic conditions (low speed stop-and-go), sometimes a few extra taps of the brake is enough to send a better visual signal to the driver behind and via their optic nerve may provide an interrupt into whatever process is consuming the frontal cortex.

Looks like the rider had a very visible bike (red) and a hi-vis jacket, but in a static situation (slow speed), that falls into the background. It's the 'motion' of a flashing brake light that gets attention.

So I'm not saying that this rider did anything wrong, rather suggesting that a couple of flashes of the brake light may be useful to avoid such collisions.

Myself, I have a led brake lamp with a good differential between off (running lamp) and on (brake applied), and it has three really quick flashes before going steady. And most times, I'll tap the lever a few extra times if I think the driver behind might need help recognizing I am in front of them.
 
Notwithstanding the impending TPS action and other social justice, and with no disrespect to the rider whatsoever, I suggest that in such traffic conditions (low speed stop-and-go), sometimes a few extra taps of the brake is enough to send a better visual signal to the driver behind and via their optic nerve may provide an interrupt into whatever process is consuming the frontal cortex.

Looks like the rider had a very visible bike (red) and a hi-vis jacket, but in a static situation (slow speed), that falls into the background. It's the 'motion' of a flashing brake light that gets attention.

So I'm not saying that this rider did anything wrong, rather suggesting that a couple of flashes of the brake light may be useful to avoid such collisions.

Myself, I have a led brake lamp with a good differential between off (running lamp) and on (brake applied), and it has three really quick flashes before going steady. And most times, I'll tap the lever a few extra times if I think the driver behind might need help recognizing I am in front of them.
But he was moving on the bike

So the yellow wouldve been moving...but with her being in her phone she still wouldnt see it
 
We need more enforcement of this, new punishment is out with possible license suspension but what has changed? people are still doing it with the same frequency on my commutes.

Until police start enforcing with undercovers and actually going for the license suspension, we won't see any change.

As hard as it is, we have to start the attitude. you would never let your friends/family get away with drinking and driving, so react similarly if you see them on their phones.
 
How long did it take for Drinking and Driving to have a stigma?

I dont know, but dont they also have activists/lobby groups as well?

Give it a few years, will take a few more deaths, it will be a stigma soon enough
 
I dont know, but dont they also have activists/lobby groups as well?

Give it a few years, will take a few more deaths, it will be a stigma soon enough

MADD can recycle their acronym with Mother Against Distracted Driving.

But theyll be too busy on their cellphones to do anything about it.
 
MADD can recycle their acronym with Mother Against Distracted Driving.

But theyll be too busy on their cellphones to do anything about it.

Quote of the day! Glad I wasn't drinking my coffee when I read it.
 
MADD can recycle their acronym with Mother Against Distracted Driving.

But theyll be too busy on their cellphones to do anything about it.

:rolleyes: :lmao:

so true..
 
How long did it take for Drinking and Driving to have a stigma?
The stigma exists already. It's not as powerful as the druk driving stigma but it's there.

But the stigma alone isn't enough. People have a tendency to rationalize their own behaviour as just and moral when it is exactly the same behaviour they criticise in others. It was true for drinking and driving and it's true for distracted driving. Until people learned that they weren't more responsible, alert, conscientious drivers than anyone else after 'just a few drinks', the deaths kept climbing. Same will happen for distracted driving.

Le Phillou's signature is right on point here. "Remember you're unique, just like everybody else"
 
Until police start enforcing with undercovers and actually going for the license suspension, we won't see any change.

And jail time, if serious injury or death occurs. Should be similar to a DWI conviction.

The penalty must be Severe Enough in order for peeps to take notice...
 
Use your horns more.....pretend you’re European. Beep at people using their phones in cars. I do, it bugs me as a motorcyclist to see idiots distracted like this. Imagine if we all did it that may have an impact.
 
Use your horns more.....pretend you’re European. Beep at people using their phones in cars. I do, it bugs me as a motorcyclist to see idiots distracted like this. Imagine if we all did it that may have an impact.

^I will start doing this.
 
And jail time, if serious injury or death occurs. Should be similar to a DWI conviction.

The penalty must be Severe Enough in order for peeps to take notice...

This kind of makes sense... if you're drunk, your judgement is already impaired yet you can still be held very liable for any injury or accident you cause. If the stats are true and distracted driving account for more accidents than impaired driving - it should be treated very similarly. The difference is that with distracted driving you aren't impaired by anything while making a decision that could lead to an accident, so if anything the punishment should be more harsh in some ways.

With this year being the year cannabis becomes legal, might as well add yet another D to the acronym: MADDDD (Mothers Against Drunk/Drug/Distracted Driving)
 
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This kind of makes sense... if you're drunk, your judgement is already impaired yet you can still be held very liable for any injury or accident you cause. If the stats are true and distracted driving account for more accidents than impaired driving - it should be treated very similarly. The difference is that with distracted driving you aren't impaired by anything while making a decision that could lead to an accident, so if anything the punishment should be more harsh in some ways.

Right on Dude... never thought about it in that sense...
 

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