Driven to distraction by polls of the absurd ( Comment )

Voters in the Yukon should seriously consider tossing the current system of government in favour of a troupe of consultants,

Voters in the Yukon should seriously consider tossing the current system of government in favour of a troupe of consultants, because as it stands, they’re the ones trolling for the opinion path of least resistance so our spineless government can respond accordingly to the supposed people’s will.

Not so long ago, the test of a politician’s mettle included his or her ability to make tough – even unpopular – decisions thought to be in the best interest of citizens.

Today, the gaming techniques employed to make a politician’s crap speak appeal to the widest voter margin during election time have been turned loose in the realm of policy and law creation.

Political leaders are elected to make decisions.

Since they aren’t making very many, particularly no-brainers like mandatory helmets on ATVs or cellphone bans for motorists, the Yukon might as well shift to governing by referendum.

Pick an issue, unleash the consultants to poll the public about potential remedies, compile the list and put it to a vote. Right out of the gate, taxpayers would save more than $5 million annually in MLAs’ salaries and the bloated expenses many of them claim.

Comparatively, the Yukon government currently spends upwards of $20 million each year on consultants, so it’s best to get our money’s worth, don’t you think?

When it came to privatizing the public utility, the government hired $275,000 worth of consultants to do the thinking – rather than mine Yukoners’ opinions – and hash out a deal with an Outside business that ultimately failed.

Apparently, Premier Dennis Fentie and his cabinet are capable of reaching a verdict on heady matters such as selling the public utility, but don’t press them on whether motorists should be banned from using cell phones behind the wheel of a car.

It’s a behavior that increases the risk of traffic accidents as reams of research and anecdotal evidence suggest, but why defer to expert opinion when you can winch open the consultation floodgates?

Watch in awe as the government flushes another several thousand dollars’ worth of taxpayer bucks for inane focus groups, phone surveys, and, in this instance, questionnaires.

For those yet to receive this wretched six-question stinker that began polluting mailboxes this week, the Star has lovingly reproduced question number one:

Various electronic devices are being used by some drivers inside vehicles. Which of (the following) activities do you think are unacceptable distractions?

• talking on a cell phone

• using a laptop computer

• watch(ing) a video while driving

• listening to an MP3 through headphones

• using a PDA (Blackberry, iPhone etc.)

• texting on a cell phone

• using an electronic gaming device.

Frankly, our government has serious problems if its elected decision-makers need to poll Yukoners to determine if watching a video, texting or playing video games constitute an “unacceptable distraction” whilst driving down the highway.

It almost makes one feel sorry for bureaucrats like Vern Janz, who had to come up with such a questionnaire, which acknowledges in its preamble how disastrous distractions can be on the road.

Of more than 800 motor vehicle accidents in the Yukon in 2008, 21 per cent (169) of which police cited “distraction” as a contributing factor, reads the pamphlet. In the year previous, according to a second information box, the results were much the same.

The Star is still waiting to hear how much this exercise fleeced taxpayers, but Highways and Public Works – the department charged with pinching this paper loaf into the public domain – has yet to provide a dollar figure.

If the government cared to looked beyond this jurisdiction for others with legislation limiting cell phone use by drivers, it need look no further than British Columbia.

Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island are others, while Alberta is poised to join the hands off cell phones, hands on the wheel movement.

Devices such as Bluetooth that give drivers the convenience of hands-free cell conversations could be made mandatory for those who require such communication as part of their work. But just in case the government needed a second, third, or 10,000th opinion, this matter is addressed in question number four.

If anybody remains under the illusion that driving at the same time as texting or chatting on your cell is not dangerous, here are some statistics:

• Drivers dialing cell phones are up to six times more likely to be in an accident or near-miss. That risk increases 23 times for those who text while driving.

• As much as 25 per cent of automobile crashes are caused by driver distraction due to mobile phone usage, and a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine determined the risk of a crash is equal to that of a drunk driver.

Adding weight to these statistics was an incident last January when a driver ensconced in cell phone chit-chattery hit a three-year-old boy in the parking lot of the Qwanlin Mall (Star, Jan. 22).

Luckily for all, the boy was not seriously injured.