Branford Police Really Cracking Down on Distracted Driving

By Jack Kramer, Correspondent

BRANFORD, CT – Branford, like many surrounding towns, is doing its best to crack down on distracted driving.

Police Chief Kevin Halloran said the police department made 302 arrests over the past month. Nearly a quarter of those arrests, or 68, were for cell phone/distracted driver violations.

Violating Connecticut’s distracted driving laws can be costly. Drivers who are ticketed for this violation can be fined $150 for a first offense, $300 for a second offense and $500 for third and subsequent offenses.

According to the NHTSA, 3,477 people were killed and an estimated 391,000 injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers in 2015. This is a 9-percent increase in fatalities as compared to the previous year.

An analysis by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety of 2009-2012 data found that while more than 80 percent of drivers believed it was completely unacceptable for a motorist to text behind the wheel, more than a third of those same drivers admitted to reading text messages while operating a passenger motor vehicle themselves.