Kelowna drivers pay the price for not hanging up

KELOWNA – Calling it Operation Hang Up, police in Kelowna handed out over 100 tickets in six hours to drivers for talking on their cell phones.

RCMP say the distracted driving enforcement blitz was conducted over six hours in three locations in Kelowna on March 17.

The cops wrote 103 cell phone violation tickets and 31 other tickets for things like vehicle defects or to drivers with no insurance, according to an RCMP media release. Almost 40 warnings were also handed out.

Const. Steve Holmes with Central Okanagan Traffic Services says drivers have to leave their phones alone.

"An individuals perceived urgency to use a cell phone while driving will never be an excuse to put their lives, and the lives of others at risk," Holmes says in the release. "At crash scene after crash scene police have seen the tragic results of something that is completely preventable.”

Along with the enforcement blitz, ICBC volunteers set up signs on Enterprise Way to remind people not to use their phones while driving.

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