‘A matter of getting people to obey’

August ticket campaign netted big numbers

It can wait. That’s been the mantra of police, advocacy groups and cell phone companies looking to discourage texting or talking behind the wheel. But new numbers from the latest statewide crackdown show thousands of drivers throughout Connecticut ignored that call until they saw flashing lights in their rear-view mirrors.

Those drivers now face hefty fines for a moment’s distraction: $150 for a first offense, $300 for a second and $500 for each subsequent violation.

“It seems like the right message is out there,” Derby police Lt. Justin Stanko said. “Now it just seems like it’s a matter of getting people to obey.”

State troopers cited 475 drivers statewide in the latest effort, which ran Aug. 3-16.

Police agencies have until early September to submit their numbers to the state Department of Transportation. The DOT said it believes 5,000 to 8,000 Connecticut drivers were cited during the August operation.

Those figures are in addition to more than 12,500 people cited in a monthlong crackdown in April.

Derby officers cited 263 people for distracted driving in the most recent campaign. Their main tool for tracking down the distracted: Stationary spotters, who could pick out people texting and phoning, then call ahead to other officers to make the stop.

Spotters were positioned at points above traffic — on a wall near the ShopRite on Pershing Drive and on a wall near St. Mary’s Church — so they could look down into cars and spot people texting in their laps.

“In reality, that’s more distracting than the phone,” Stanko said.

Derby didn’t take part in a monthlong crackdown this spring and Stanko said the August numbers were higher than the Department expected. But he said it could have been even higher; at some points, officers working overtime were citing 20 to 30 people in a three-hour stretch.

“You only have so many people who can write tickets,” he said. “You can only pull over so many cars at a time.”

The state police also used spotters for their operations, Trooper 1st Class Kelly Grant said. But she said many tickets also come from troopers being out on the road, watching the drivers around them carefully.

“When people are preoccupied with their phone, they don’t realize there’s a trooper beside them and behind them,” she said.

The crackdown might be over but sharp-eyed troopers still will be watching for talkers and texters — especially over the next two weeks, when the state police will be out in force to keep people safe as they head back to school or try to squeeze in one last summer trip before Labor Day.

Troopers are doing extra patrols on routes 7, 8, 26, 41, 44, 63, 181, 183, 219, and 272 in Litchfield County between this past Friday and Wednesday.

There will be extra patrols over the Labor Day weekend as well.

Connecticut received $2.3 million in federal funds this year for distracted-driving crackdowns, which went out to the different police agencies through the state Department of Transportation.

Aaron Swanson, the DOT’s distracted-driving program manager, said the agency doesn’t require departments to use the spotter technique but does encourage it.

“It’s a proven technique,” he said. “It’s been proven by the officers and by pilot research programs here and in other states.”

Swanson said the agency also encouraged officers to focus on prime daytime driving hours, like the morning and evening rush hours. And he said some police departments have said it’s getting a little harder to find people breaking the law.

“The fact that you’re seeing some anecdotal behavior change when they’re going to the same spots is a positive, and that’s the goal,” he said.

Seeing hundreds of drivers being cited for cell phone use has at least one advocacy group looking for another solution besides enforcement.

The Distracted Driving Foundation, based in Washington state, is working to raise $20,000 to study ways to change the technology inside cell phones or inside cars to prevent them from working for a person who is driving.

“The problem is caused by technology, and if we further improve the technology, it controls the problem,” said Jeff Haley, the group’s acting executive director.

Solutions the group has put forth include motion sensors and mechanisms to block texting and Web surfing if the phone is moving faster than a certain speed, such as 15 mph.

Haley said the group believes such equipment could be added to cell phones at a low cost to consumers, perhaps as low as a few cents a month.

He said it would be similar to technology that helps 911 operators track down the locations of cell phones during an emergency call. That equipment is federally mandated and the small cost is passed onto consumers each month.

Haley said there are systems on the market that allow parents or employers to limit cell phone use by children and employees who are driving. But he said that to really make an impact, everyone has to use it and people won’t do it because they believe they drive safely.

“People don’t want to buy it for their own phones [and] they won’t pay anything for it unless it’s required in everyone else’s phone and only costs them” a few cents a month, he said.

He said the Distracted Driving Foundation eventually hopes to lobby the federal government to mandate the technology be included in all cell phones. The group is a 501(c)(3) foundation and contributions can be made it on its website, www.ddfn.org.