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Troopers were out in force on Saturday, Nov. 30, as they conducted a distracted driving detail on the parkway in Hawthorne.
In total, during the detail, troopers issued a total of 29 tickets for various vehicle and traffic violations, including five drivers who failed to adhere to the “move over” law.
Cell phone use, texting, and other driver distractions continue to be a serious traffic safety concern in New York State and across the country. In order to address this public health and safety issue effectively, the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee (GTSC) works with high schools, community organizations, local and state government, and law enforcement agencies to educate about and enforce laws against distracted driving.
Distracted driving has been on the rise in the past decade, causing numerous crashes and deaths nationwide.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, between 2012 and 2017, nearly 20,000 people died in crashes involving a distracted driver. Preliminary data showed a 918 percent increase in tickets for texting while driving in New York from 2011 to 2016. While tickets for calls on cell phones continue to decline, the use of smartphones for texting has caused the number of tickets to rise every year since 2011.
There were 3,166 people killed in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers in 2017, a 9 percent decrease in distracted driving fatalities from 2016 to 2017. Since 2015, nearly 33,000 crashes in New York have involved a distraction - resulting in more than four dozen fatal crashes.
During the April 2017 Operation Hang Up campaign, State Police issued more than 16,000 tickets, including more than 2,000 tickets for distracted driving. The tickets written were a combination of talking on a cell phone without a hands-free device, texting or using an electronic device while driving.
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