Driven: RNC sting targets cellphones and seatbelts

The man is driving a large, commercial van, with no seatbelt.

He pulls up to the traffic lights, looking relaxed in spite of the fact that he'snot wearing a seatbelt.

He's putting his life in danger.

He's also breaking the law in full view of an Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officer, but the van driver doesn't know that yet.

"See how he's leaned ahead?" says Sgt. Paul Didham.

The head of the RNC Traffic Services unit is watching the intersection from an unmarked vehicle, in a parking lot with a clear view of the surrounding traffic. And he's not alone.

"You're going to have a van coming towards you driver not wearing his seatbelt," Didham says into his walkie-talkie.

The light turns green and the man pulls ahead, still unaware that he's already been caught in an RNC traffic sting.

As soon as he clears the intersection, an RNC cruiser swoops in behind him, lights flashing.

While a uniformed constable steps out to give the van driver a ticket, Didham clicks his pen and adds another tally to a running count of citations handed out by his officers this morning.

The paper he's writing on is nearly full.

The sting

Hours earlier, Didham and a half dozen officers from RNC Traffic Services meetat RNC headquarters in St. John's.

"Today, all of us are going to do some strategic enforcement in the Kenmount Road and Pippy Place area," Didham says to thegroup.

The target today is drivers not wearing seatbelts, and distracted drivers, which almost always means drivers using mobile phones.

"We'll have two people out as spotters in unmarked vehicles, plain clothes, and there'll be three officers in patrol vehicles," Didham says.

It's a simple but effective method of catching people committing some of the most common yet vexing traffic violations.

In 2015, in RNC jurisdiction, five people were killed in car accidents while not wearing seatbelts.

"These are two of the four big killers, what we refer to as the big killers in Canada the distracted drivingand non-compliance with seatbelts," he says. "The other two being impaired driving and aggressive driving."

Seat belts and cellphones

As soon as Didham and his officers are in place, they radio starts crackling with calls.

"One right here, look! Dump truck," Didham says, reaching for his radio.

"Ok guys, I have a dump truck pulling off the lot here now. Heading west on Goldstone. It's a burgundy dump truck, male driver, dark grey sweater. Hetalking on his cellphone up to his left ear."

Those details are important.

Moments later, when the officer pulls over the dump truck, the driver will have stuffed the cellphone out of sight.

It's Didham's initial observation that will constitute the evidence should the driver contest the ticket in court.

"I don't like to minimize it, that one is more dangerous than the other, but you've got a guy driving a huge piece of equipment here in a busy intersection, with all the other distractions going on, and he's talking on his cellphone."

Didham is interrupted by a call on the radio.

Another officer has stopped a driver for not wearing a seatbelt, and discovered the driver has a suspended licence. The driver gets two tickets in a single trafficstop.

Just as often, people clearly breaking the lawslip through the net.

A few minutes later, Didham spots a person driving a cement truck, again talking on a cellphone. He calls it in, but all the uniformed officers already have other drivers pulled over.

Didham watches the cement truck drive away.

"That's the downside of things," he says. "Sometimes we get busy."

Enforcement or deterrent?

The operation lasts around 90 minutes, with scarcely a lull in the action. Nearly every time the light turns red, Didham spots another driver not wearing a seatbelt or using their cellphone.

"We don't want to be out here giving out tickets;this is not meant to be punitive. It's unfortunate that enforcement is our biggest deterrent."

Yet moments later, a scene unfolds that leaves him scratching his head.

An officer,with her cruiser's red and blue lights flashing,pulls over a driver.As she hands the driver a ticket, only meters away, another driver pulls up to the traffic lights and immediately stares down into their lap; a dead giveaway they'reusing their cellphone.

Tallying the tickets

Didham calls out to each of his officers, and gets a tally of the tickets they've handed out during the operation.

"So in an hour and a half, in generally a small area, we have issued 25 seatbelt tickets, 10 cellphone tickets.We also have two suspended drivers apprehended and two speeding violations," he says.

"It makes us realize that there's still work to do, both on our part and on the part of the general public."

Just as Didham tries to wrap up the sting, he spots yet another driver talking on a cellphone while waiting at the intersection.

The RNC officer reaches for his radio.

Make that 11 cellphone tickets.

CBC Newfoundland and Labrador is hosting a special 90-minute public forum on dangerous driving. Be sure to watch Here & Now from 6 until 7 p.m. NT on Nov. 24, and check back to our website, Facebook page and YouTube channel from 6 to 7:30 p.m. NT.