Yorktown Police Dish Out 39 Tickets During Distracted Driving Detail in Mohegan Lake
Every 15 minutes in America, someone dies in a traffic accident, according to the AAA Foundation. In 2015, 3,477 people were killed as the result of a distracted driver. Fatalities include drivers, passengers, pedestrians, cyclists, and every other kind of road user.
In an effort to keep our local roadways safe, the Yorktown Police Department (YPD) and the Alliance for Safe Kids (ASK) have teamed up with State Farm for a special Driving Safety Initiative to urge all drivers to put their phones down and pay attention to the road. The local distracted driving effort focuses on ways to change the behavior of drivers through enforcement, public awareness, and education.
On May 10th, the YPD conducted a distracted driving detail at the intersection of Route 6 and Mohegan Avenue in Mohegan Lake, NY. The four-hour operation resulted in 39 tickets – 31 of which were tickets for cell-phone use. Last week, the YPD handed out 35 tickets for cell-phone use during their distracted driving detail at the intersection of Routes 202/35/118.
“As I mentioned last week, this type of traffic detail will be a common theme throughout the spring and summer for us. In addition to the tickets issued, we also made three arrests, one for possession of heroin,” said Yorktown Police Chief, Robert Noble. “Distracted driving is extremely dangerous and we will continue to be present and enforce the laws in order to ensure the safety of our roads.”
Each day, it is estimated that 660,000 people use a cell-phone while driving in America. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that crash risk is four times higher when a driver uses a cell phone, whether or not it’s hands-free.
“When driving at 55mph, you can blindly travel the entire length of a football field just by taking your eyes off the road for a mere 5 seconds,” added Erica Stanzione, Director of Communications and Partnerships at ASK. “Enforcement and education around driving safety is one of our top priorities, especially our ‘STOP TXTING U R DRIVING’ initiative. We are thankful to YPD for their continued enforcement and to State Farm for helping us spread awareness about this dangerous behavior.”
For more driving safety information, visit www.allianceforsafekids.org/by-topic/driving-safety/