Kelowna traffic officers handed out more than 50 tickets to drivers in school zones during a crackdown on distracted driving last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police said officers were looking for distracted drivers using their cellphones during the busy pick-up and drop-off hours at several schools on Feb. 11 and 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDriving demands your full attention, especially in school zones where children are present,\u201d Const. Tyler Hug with the road safety unit said in a media release issued today, Feb. 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officers watched as drivers texted and scrolled on their phones, and even took photos of the offenders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChildren can act unpredictably, and even a brief distraction can put them at serious risk,\u201d Const. Hug said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police point out that using a cellphone while driving is illegal, even if you are stopped in traffic or at a red light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Getting a ticket for using an electronic device will driving comes with a $368 fine and four demerit points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur priority is community education and helping everyone make safer choices,\u201d Const. Hug said. “While we always aim to prevent incidents through awareness, enforcement becomes necessary when drivers choose not to follow the rules that keep our neighbourhoods safe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Officers took photos of drivers texting and scrolling on their phones during pick-up and drop-off times at schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":362,"featured_media":5099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"guid":"","source":"","byline":"","published":"","updated":"","_infotelid":"","_prepressid":"","_multisite_post_sync":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1285,492,493],"tags":[],"region":[206,207,208,209],"class_list":["post-5098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-local","category-topnews","region-kamloops","region-kelowna","region-penticton","region-vernon"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"post_modified":"2026-02-17T11:07:17","post_modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T19:07:17","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/inwheels-Distracted-driving-collage_260217.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5098"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=5098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}