The Danville Police Division has released the results of their Distracted Driving Campaign that took place April 16-30, 2018.
Director of Public Safety Larry Thomason said the campaign to remind motorists that texting and/or using a cellular phone in hand while driving was successful.
According to Thomason there were 116 traffic stops made during the two week campaign that resulted in 135 enforcement actions. Seventy-seven of the enforcement acts were for distracted driving. The remainder of the enforcement included violations for speeding, no insurance and other registration violations.
“While we consider the campaign a success we realize there is much more information to get out to the driving public,” Thomason said. “In such a busy world and high technology we recognize that people can easily forget the dangers associated with driving distracted and unfortunately, as law enforcement, we must make the stops when those violations occur.”
Thomason said that senseless deaths on the highways can be prevented by simply putting down the cell phone and keeping an eye on the open road. As given prior to the start of the campaign sending or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent of driving blind at 55 mph for the length of an entire football field.
Drivers who text when behind the wheel more than double their chances of being involved in a crash and even when using the in-vehicle technologies there can be as much as 40 seconds needed to complete the tasks such as programming navigation of sending a text message.
“We continue to encourage and plead with the motoring public, do not drive while distracted,” Thomason said. “Your life and that of others are at stake when you drive distracted.”
