Secaucus Police Looking For Distracted Drivers Starting Friday

SECAUCUS, NJ ― Starting this Friday, April 1 Secaucus Police will be stepping up patrols looking for distracted drivers — people texting, talking on their phone or even reaching into the backseat to talk to a child or get something they dropped.

This is part of New Jersey’s statewide UDrive. UText. UPay. enforcement campaign for the month of April. New Jersey is one of eight states to receive distracted driving federal grants in 2022.

The federal funding will be used to pay for police overtime to look specifically for distracted drivers.

Overtime patrols will be out in Secaucus starting April 1 and running through the end of the month.

Driver inattention remains the most frequently cited cause of fatal and severe crashes in New Jersey — seven times higher than fatal crashes caused by speeding, according to State Police data. Driver inattention was a contributing circumstance in nearly 49 percent of NJ crashes in 2019.

And it's hardly just texting.

Distracted driving includes:

• Talking or texting on your phone
• Eating and drinking while driving
• Talking to people in your car, especially turning around to talk to or yell at kids in the back
• Dealing with kids in the car, reaching behind you to get something a child dropped
• Fiddling with the stereo, entertainment or navigation system
• Anything that takes your eyes off the road!