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Toronto Police Hearse Pulls Over Distracted Drivers

The vehicle is part of a campaign called "That Text or Call Could End It All."

Hearses never pull drivers over, except when those drivers are texting at the wheel.

Police in Toronto have revived a distracted driving awareness campaign called "That Text or Call Could End It All," and have again recruited the most sinister of vehicles for the cause.

Const. Clinton Stibbe, traffic services spokesman, said he personally pulled over and charged several people for using their phones on Tuesday in the lumbering funereal car.

One woman was "pretty shocked, to say the least," he said.

"'Can I get this straight? You’ve just pulled me over with a hearse?'" he quoted her as saying.

The car, on loan from funeral services provider MacKinnon and Bowes, has been decked out with strobe lights and police decals, Stibbe said.

And the sight is meant to scare motorists.

According to police data, 7,317 motor vehicle collisions in 2015 involved at least one inattentive driver.

Of those accidents, 1,906 involved some kind of injury, and 10 resulted in fatalities.

Inattention could mean anything from a driver fiddling with their radio to reaching in the back seat to grab an item, but we're guessing that some were likely due to cell phones.

Police have laid more than 109,000 distracted driving charges since 2011, Stibbe said.

So, Toronto drivers, next time a hearse tails you with its lights flashing, it’s not because you’re dead, but to remind you there's a chance that you could have killed yourself or someone else.

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