California crackdown on driving distractions - campaign during Christmas season 2012/2013
This past Christmas season, over 3,000 California drivers walked away with an unexpected surprise not from Santa Clause but from the Sacramento County Police Department. Due to a recent grant for high-visibility law enforcement pilot programs, police were targeting people using hand held phones and also those who were texting and driving. Traffic Safety Director Chris Murphy said, “We are committed to saving lives on area roadways, and drivers should expect to continue to see officers enforcing cell phone driving laws time and time again.” If that isn’t a warning for California motorists, I don’t know what is.
Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other
This was part of a program recently enacted by law enforcement called “Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other.” Its main purpose is to cut down on the number of distracted drivers on California’s highways and it’s not a stretch to say that this campaign was a success. The Sacramento Bee reports that while not all motorists were obvious in their distraction, one offender was straddling two lanes while trying to order concert tickets from her cell phone. She was stopped and given a ticket, but certainly not the kind she was trying to order.
As far as fines go, this was not a tiny slap on the wrist. Right at Christmas time, a first time offender will pay $159 and a second offense costs a minimum of $279. This doesn’t include court fees either. That’s a hefty fee for someone who was planning to spend their money on concert tickets. And this isn’t going to stop either. Northern California has another program date set for Feb 25 through Mar 10 and hopefully, they will catch less drivers because word of mouth will have gotten around that law enforcement is serious about catching distracted drivers.
Crackdowns in General
Distracted Driving
This has become a very popular trend among many states. This most recent California crackdown is based on successful campaigns run in Hartford Connecticut and Syracuse, New York. Both of these cities received federally funded grants to help stop distracted drivers and that’s exactly what happened. Texting while driving dropped by 72 percent in Hartford and by 32 percent in Syracuse based on a state traffic safety press release. Looking at the numbers in a different form, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) stated that during this period, Hartford police wrote 9,658 tickets and police in Syracuse wrote 9,587 tickets. With those ticket numbers and decline in cell phone use, Ray LaHood, the U.S. Transportation Secretary said, “These findings show that strong laws, combined with highly visible police enforcement can significantly reduce dangerous texting and cell phone use behind the wheel.”
Seat Belts
And this isn’t the only kind of crackdown that law enforcement is bringing to a roadway near you. We are all familiar with the Click it or Ticket program which allows police to pull people over for not wearing their seatbelt. Increasingly, not wearing your seat belt is becoming a primary offense, meaning that police can pull you over solely for not wearing a seat belt. In other states, it
is still a secondary offense but if you get pulled over for another offense, you can still get a ticket for not wearing the belt. And there is good reason for this crackdown.
Safety belts save lives. Roughly 35,000 people die every year from traffic accidents and about 50 percent of these people could have lived if they had been wearing safety belts. Yes, you are going to hear from someone that knew someone that head a story about if so and so had been wearing a seat belt they would have been stuck in the car and died but that rarely occurs and more often than not, wearing a seat belt is one of the safest things you can do. Which is why they will continually have crackdowns. Back in November, Chandler Arizona received $60,000 in state grants to help enforce seat belt laws.
Drinking and Driving
Another popular crackdown is the zero tolerance and DUI/DWI crackdown. This is often held around the holidays because law enforcement recognizes that many people will be traveling so the roadways will be more congest than normal. More people mean the more potential for accidents if cops aren’t out there catching the culprits that make the road
unsafe for everyone. Just this past month, in Rock County Wisconsin, local news station Channel 3000 reported that in a mission entitled ‘Booze-N-Belts’ almost 300 traffic citations were given. While this number isn’t close to California’s number, it demonstrates that a crackdown can happen anywhere, small or large because these problems are running through every kind of community. The effort was partially funded by a federal grant.
The Crackdown Has A Purpose
A crackdown, as defined by the Center for Problem
Oriented Policing, is “sudden and dramatic increases in police officer presence, sanctions, and threats of apprehension either for specific offenses or for all offenses in specific places.” The whole point is to help reduce a particular kind of behavior and raise awareness at the same time. If people don’t believe they are going to get caught, they will continue participating in the behavior but if the likelihood is greater that they will be caught, the majority of people will discontinue the behavior.
This is the whole purpose behind crackdowns and they are only getting more popular. And don’t think that just because police are out looking for people texting and driving that they won’t give a speeding ticket. And any kind of ticket is going to affect your insurance. Rates have the potential to rise significantly based on your driving history and the state you live in. Three violations could raise your premiums by 53%! To avoid extra tickets and high insurance rates, drive safely and obey the law and if a crackdown comes to your town, you will have nothing to worry about.
