Wilton Police to Crank Up Distracted Driving Enforcement

WILTON, CT — Police will be cracking down on drivers who use hand-held phones while driving during the month of April.

The department announced Monday that it is participating in the “U DRIVE. U TEXT. U PAY." initiative. The national effort hopes to limit the number of drivers who use handheld devices while driving.

Wilton police will have extra patrols on certain days to crackdown on texting and driving. Drivers can be ticketed $150 for a first offense, $300 for a second offense and $500 for third and subsequent offenses.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that 3,477 people were killed and an estimated 391,000 injured in crashes involving distracted drivers nationwide in 2015. That number represented a 9 percent increase from the previous year.

Image By Intel Free Press - http://www.flickr.com/photos/intelfreepress/8598246170/sizes/o/in/photostream/, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link