Yorktown Police Work to Crack Down on Distracted Drivers
The Yorktown Police Department issued 39 tickets May 10 during a distracted driving enforcement campaign at the intersection of Route 6 and Mohegan Avenue in Mohegan Lake.
During the four-hour operation, 31 of the tickets were for cell phone use. A week earlier, Yorktown cops handed out 35 tickets for cell phone use during a similar detail at the intersection of routes 202, 35 and 118.
“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,” said Yorktown Police Chief Robert Noble. “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.”
Yorktown Police and the Alliance for Safe Kids (ASK) have teamed up with State Farm for a driving safety initiative to urge drivers not to use their phones while operating vehicles. It is estimated 660,000 people use a cell phone daily while driving in the United States.
The New England Journal of Medicine has reported the risk of a crash is four times higher when a driver uses a cell phone, hands-free or not. In 2015, 3,477 people were killed as a result of a distracted driver.
“When driving at 55 MPH, you can blindly travel the entire length of a football field just by taking your eyes off the road for a mere five seconds,” said Erica Stanzione, director of communications and partnerships at ASK.
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