Crime & Safety

Campbell's Distracted Drivers Reminded of the Law

California Highway Patrol kicked off Distracted Driver Awareness Campaign on April 4 and 5 with 100 citations issued in Campbell.

A little more than a week in, the California Highway Patrol's first Distracted Driving Awareness Month has left 100 people in Campbell with a costly reminder to use hands-free devices or stay off the phone.

  joined the California Highway Patrol and hundreds of other local departments statewide to crack down on texting and other distracting phone use.

The minimum cost of a ticket is $159, and subsequent tickets cost $279, police said.

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"I'm real proud of how serious our officers took this," says Campbell Police Capt. Dave Carmichael. "We've always felt that distracted driving plays a big role in collisions, especially injury collisions. Studies have shown that drivers using handheld devices are four times more likely to get into serious injury accidents."

In the month of February, Campbell Police issued 23 citations for distracted driving. In March, the department issued 33 citations and between April 4 and 5, issued 100 citations.

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Carmichael says that the law states that devices used in the car have to be hands free, so if the phone is on speaker but is still in the hands of the driver, the law still applies.

"In my experience and from what I hear from the patrol officers, most people know the law and they know that what they're doing is not allowed," he says. "You don't have to spend a lot of time looking for these distracted drivers. Just sit at an intersection and it doesn't take long before you spot them. It's pretty common."

The campaign to crack down on distracted drivers goes through the month of April, with another two days of heavy crackdown on April 14 and 18, but Carmichael says that the crack down won't lessen once May rolls around.

"It doesn't mean the pressure is off," he says. "The real reason to not talk on your phone while driving is your safety and the safety of others."

Christopher J. Murphy, state office of traffic safety director, said, “Convincing California drivers to wear seat belts 20 years ago wasn’t easy either, but in 2010 more than 96 percent buckled up, and thousands of lives were saved.” 

While California Senate Bill 1613 has required drivers to use a hands-free headset since 2008, police said that conversations using the devices can still result in dangerous “inattention blindness.”

Safety Tips from the California Office of Traffic Safety
  • Turn your phone off or put it out of reach before starting the car.
  • Alert callers that you are unable to take calls when driving by changing your voicemail message.
  • Make it a point not to call or text anyone who may be driving, such as during the commute to and from work or school, especially parents calling teen drivers.
  • If you do need to make an important call or respond to a text message, pull over to a safe place to do so.
  • If going cold turkey is too much of a stretch and you just can’t turn your phone off, consider using one of the available mobile phone apps that holds calls and incoming texts.

Eric Gneckow contributed to this article.


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