Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation announced today that Bill 118 – the distracted driving legislation – is coming into effect as of Oct. 26. The new law will make it illegal for drivers to talk, text, type, dial or email using hand-held cell phones and other hand-held communications and entertainment devices. Following a three-month period that begins October 26, where the focus will be on educating drivers, police will start issuing tickets on February 1, 2010.
All two-way radios in all vehicles with the exception of emergency responding vehicles must be hands-free in three years time. This news comes from the official government staffer who has been in communications with Radio Amateurs of Canada over the last year. At the end of the three-year exemption, all commercial, CB and amateur radio equipment used in moving vehicles by the vehicle operator must be hands-free in operation.