The West Hartford Police Department will have extra patrols targetting distracted drivers from Aug. 3 – Aug. 16.

Photo credit: Ronni Newton

By Ronni Newton

The West Hartford Police Department will be joining forces with the Connecticut Department of Transportation Highway Safety Office beginning Aug. 3, 2015, for the year’s second campaign against distracted driving.

“U Drive. U Text. U Pay” will include special patrols specifically targetting distracted drivers and enforcing distracted driving laws. According to West Hartford Police Capt. Jeff Rose, who heads the department’s Traffic Division, 643 infractions were issued during the last campaign, which ran during April 2015.

West Hartford Police also conducted a distracted driving campaign for three weeks during Sept. 2014, and handed out tickets for 584 distracted driving infractions during that time period.

This phase of the campaign will run from Monday, Aug. 3 through Sunday, Aug. 16, and Rose said that the majority of the cost is funded through a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration grant.

According to Rose, the patrols will use marked and unmarked cruisers, and may use a “spotter” officer to catch drivers and relay that information to other officers stationed down the street.

“We try to get representation all around town,” Rose said. Primary locations will include the intersections of New Britain Avenue/Mayflower Street, North Main Street/Farmington Avenue, Park Road/South Quaker Lane, Fern Street/North Main Street, Farmington Avenue/North Highland Street, and Albany Avenue/North Main Street.

Patrols are also expected to target New Park Avenue as well as Sedgwick Road near Tunxis, across from Sedgwick Middle School. Rose said that other school areas may be targetted as well. “Even though schools are not in session right now, we want to reinforce safe driving habits before schools starts,” he said.

According to a news release from the West Hartford Police Department, “according to surveys conducted before and after April’s crackdown, there was an eight percent drop in mobile phone use by drivers at observation locations throughout municipalities where police conducted enforcement which includes West Hartford. The reduction in observed use is encouraging and demonstrates the need to reinforce to motorists that mobile phone use while driving is both dangerous and illegal.”

“Driving while using a cell phone will cause a motorist to take their eyes off the road, hands off the wheel, and their mind off the task of driving. It puts another person’s life at risk when someone drives like that,” Officer Dan Bedford of the West Hartford Police Traffic Division said in a news release about the campaign.

Fines for violations begin at $150 for a first offense, increase to $300 for a second offense, and are $500 for subsequent violations, Rose said. Fines double in a construction, utility, traffic, or fire safety zones.

“We hope that by enforcing Connecticut distracted driving laws we will save lives by deterring this dangerous behavior. Our goal is to make our roads safe for all who use them,” Rose said.

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