New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
The Massachusetts State Police (MSP) are out again in full force, increasing their number of patrols and using stationary and roving patrol techniques in marked and unmarked vehicles to catch violators texting at the wheel. The high-visibility crackdown which began on September 14th is ongoing through October 11, 2014. Texting enforcement patrols provide maximum visibility for deterrent purposes and saturate targeted areas using a zero tolerance approach.
The “Text With One Hand, Ticket in the Other” campaign is a strategic, multi-phase program, funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) through the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, that started with two enforcement waves in 2013 (June and September), a third wave in June of this year, and will conclude with the ongoing final wave ending October 11, 2014. Wave 3 resulted in a total of 956 distracted driving citations bringing the grand total of all three waves to over 3,000.
A kickoff press event was held in conjunction with the Drive Sober campaign on August 28, 2014 at the MSP Troop A-1 barracks in Andover, MA. Ms. Emily Stein, whose father was killed by a distracted driver, was guest speaker and spoke to the heartache of losing a family member to this deadly epidemic of distracted driving.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 660,000 drivers are using cell phones or manipulating electronic devices while driving at any given daylight moment in America. And, of all injury crashes in the United States in 2012, more than 18 percent were reported as distraction-affected crashes.
Massachusetts, along with 43 more states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands ban text messaging (composing, sending/receiving electronic messages and data while driving). In Massachusetts, fines start at $100 for the first offense and go up to $500 for repeat violations.
For more information on texting while driving and its prevention, including the demonstration grant to Massachusetts, visit www.distraction.gov.
But they get to use their laptops while driving lol The hyprocrisy hysterical!