CHP Santa Cruz officers improved driver safety during Distracted Driver Awareness month. The key impact is in the lives officers influence for safer driving. Drivers cited will hopefully remind family members and friends to “keep their eyes on the road, and hands on the wheel.”
A recent study by NHTSA (April 2013) shows that drivers who text while driving spend, on average, 72% of the time looking at their phones and only 28% of the time watching the road. The study also found drivers talking on a cellular device (even those using hands-free talking) were 6% more likely to be following another vehicle too closely.
Local drivers offered numerous thanks for CHP’s April effort to remind drivers to keep driving safety first. Those most vulnerable, the bicycling community and Cal-Trans highway workers, also expressed their thanks for this targeted reminder for all drivers to drive “hands-free.”
It was telling to hear from officers just how habitual some driver’s cell phone use has become. Some drivers were cited twice this month, sometimes by the same officer. One person was cited twice in two days. It also appears some family members were each cited on the same day.
The extra attention officers gave to distracted drivers showed a 30% increase in citations overall. This focus showed only a minimal drop in other citations, but a 500% increase in the 1367 tickets issued to distracted drivers, with a 40% increase in tickets for seatbelt violations.
In this safety focus, Santa Cruz CHP officers still met all other patrol needs well. The effort was complimented by a 10% increase in DUI arrests (112), and a triple increase in felony arrests (29), while patrol officers handled the usual calls for service and collision investigations in April.
Though April is now past, we trust drivers continue to drive safely, smoothly, and efficiently.
The CHP remains your highway patrol – devoted to saving lives!
Scott Wood, Lieutenant
Santa Cruz Area