Franklin Lakes Police Cracking Down On Texting Drivers

FRANKLIN LAKES. N.J. – The police department will be cracking down on motorists who text while they drive as part of the U Drive. U Text. U Pay. national campaign.

Officers will use a combination of “traditional and innovative strategies” during the six-day campaign from April 8 through 13, said Detective Lt. John Bakelaar.

In 2014, nearly 3,200 people were killed and 431,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers, according to authorities.

“The risk of a crash or near-crash among novice drivers increased with the performance of many secondary tasks, including texting and dialing cell phones, Bakelaar said, citing a 2014 article in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Twenty-five percent of teenagers respond to a text message at least once every time they drive. Twenty percent of teenagers and 10 percent of parents admitted that they’ve had “extended, multi-message text conversations” while driving, according to a 2012 study by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute.

For more information about the U Drive. U Text. U Pay campaign, visit distraction.gov.

U Drive. U Text. U Pay. campaign logo/Courtesy of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration