February is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and the RCMP is hoping to get through to Albertans.

Constable Mike Hibbs says the number of motorists who aren’t paying attention isn’t decreasing.

“According to Alberta Transportation, there was a little over 27,200 tickets and convictions issued between April 2015 to March 2016,” he said.

That’s almost the same amount of tickets that were issued the previous year.

Hibbs says it’s not just cell phone usage leading to problems.

“We see people actually doing their hair, doing their makeup, also dealing with kids, animals in the cars, setting GPSes, setting radios,” he explained.

“So, there’s a lot of different distractions that can take your attention off the road, just for a split second.”

He says that’s all that’s needed to triple the odds of crashing.

A distracted driving ticket isn’t cheap: it will set an offender back $287 and three demerit points.