Newtown Police Crack Down on Distracted Driving

The Newtown Police Department announced the crackdown of its distracted driving campaign on Facebook.

From April 13 to April 27, Newtown law enforcement personnel will be using a combination of traditional and innovative strategies to crack down on motorists who text and use cell phones while driving.

This effort is a part of the national U Drive. U Text. U Pay high-visibility enforcement campaign that combines intense enforcement of anti cell phone and texting laws with advertising and media outreach to let people know about the enforcement and convince them to obey the law.

“Driving and using a cell phone and texting is illegal and irresponsible. People who break our State’s cell phone laws will be stopped and fined. If you drive and use your cell phone, you will pay,” Sergeant Aaron Bahamonde said in the news release. “For those who say that driving and using your hand held for texting or making phone calls is an epidemic, we believe enforcement of our state cell phone law is part of the cure.”

In 2013, 3,154 people were killed and an estimated additional 424,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involv¬ing distracted drivers. This represents a 6.7 percent decrease in the number of fatalities recorded in 2012.

“Using a hand held cell phone, to include texting and making calls while driving requires motorists to take their eyes off the road, hands off the wheel, and mind off the task of driving. It creates the proverbial ‘perfect storm’ for a crash, and no one has the right to put another person’s life at risk like that,” Bahamonde said.

Image via Shutterstock

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