$550,000 from the federal government is going to Connecticut and Massachusetts for pilot projects to crack down on drivers who text while driving.
According to NBC News , Connecticut and Massachusetts will both receive $275,000 grants that will be used towards developing “high-visibility anti-texting enforcement programs,”the enforcement program will include, among other things, stationing police spotters on highway overpasses that will look for the texting drivers.
“We have come a long way in our fight against distracted driving, but there is still much work to be done,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Tuesday. “Texting behind the wheel is especially dangerous, which is why we’re working with states like Connecticut and Massachusetts to address this important safety issue.”
The $275,000 grants will be used to develop better methods of spotting texting drivers and also on training police officers on the new methods. The money will also be spent on developing media campaigns aimed at alerting the public to the dangers of texting and driving.
According to the Department of Transportation, distracted driving has become a more common problem with the proliferation of cellphones. In 2010, 3000 people died from distracted driving incidents. These incidents involved people who were texting, talking on a cellphones, eating and drinking, grooming, and other distracting activities.
Citing research, the agency says that drivers who use handheld devices are four times more likely to be involved in crashes serious enough to injure themselves. The act of texing and driving creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted, according to research.
There are now thirty-nine states that have laws on the books that ban texting, and 10 states have laws that prohibit any use of handheld cell phones while driving, according to federal transportation officials.
“While it is relatively easier for law enforcement to determine illegal handheld cellphone use by observing the position of the phone at the driver’s ear, the dangerous practice of texting while driving is often not as obvious,” said David Strickland, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in a press release. “These two new demonstration programs will help identify real-world protocols and practices to better detect if a person is texting while driving.”
The anti-texting enforcement protocols and techniques, that the grants will help develop, will include using stationary patrols, spotters on overpasses or elevated roadways and roving patrols. The results of such techniques will be documented for the benefit of other states.
