Phone In One Hand – Ticket In The Other

OFF THE WIRE
Phone In One Hand – Ticket In The Other
http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/10/12/phone-in-one-hand-ticket-in-the-other/

Holding a cell phone to text or talk while driving is no "LOL" matter according to transportation officials. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Transportation reports that nearly 5,500 people were killed on U.S. roadways that involved distracted driving, which is why the department is stepping up efforts to get motorists to put down their electronic devices, and keep their eyes on the road.

‪If you live in Syracuse, New York or Hartford, Connecticut and you like to text and talk while driving, you may see bright flashing red lights in your rear view mirror sooner than you think. The DOT has doled out 400-thousand dollars to police departments in the two cities to put extra officers on the streets to focus solely on ticketing distracted drivers using electronic devices.

‪The pilot program is called "Phone In One Hand - Ticket In The Other" and it works just like it sounds.

‪Bad driving behaviors that involve cell phone talking and texting are earning thousands of chatty motorists a trip to the curb for a pricey lesson from the law. Since April of this year, almost 10-thousand tickets have been written in Hartford and in Syracuse. To find out more about how the program is working, we headed to Syracuse for a "ride-along" with our cameras to get a first hand look at the distracted driving enforcement in action

‪We heard a lot of excuses from drivers who were busted using their cell phones. One woman said she was simply trying to turn her phone off as it was ringing before she was pulled over. She got a ticket. Another said that she was just trying to pull over while answering the phone, a call she said she couldn't afford to miss with her husband in the hospital. She too, left the curb with a ticket it hand. Driving while talking on a cell phone without a headset is illegal. Period.

‪Syracuse Police Captain Shannon Trice says he issues about one ticket every 15 minutes during these stepped up patrols, which is about the time it takes to spot a distracted driver, pull them over and run their information through a squad car computer system which spits out a ticket. Captain Trice says, "The goal is to change driver behavior. We want to change the culture. When asked how it's working, the captain said "We're actually subscribing to a business model, the model being that a satisfied customer will tell three people about their experience, but a dissatisfied customer will tell 300 people about their experience. So by handing out tickets to violators, we're hoping they tell 300 other people their experience, and maybe those people will think twice, and not do it."

‪The increased enforcement periods are done in 2 week long waves, (this one being the third), and are timed to run simultaneously with a public service announcement about the dangers of driving while distracted. The "Phone In One Hand - Ticket In The Other" program was modeled after the "Click It or Ticket" seatbelt campaign. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood hopes this program will have the type of success seatbelt and drunk driving campaigns have had in the past, saying, "We know that a national law worked for drunk driving. Point 0-8. Now everyone knows what that means, everyone knows what 'Click It or Ticket' means... and both those, sort of national standards, really helped us get drunk drivers off the road. In the case of .08 and click it or ticket has really helped us get 85 percent of people to buckle up. That's where we want to be with distracted driving, in a shorter period of time, than 'Click It or Ticket', or 'Point 0-8.'"

‪Data from the program is being collected and Department of Transportation analysts will examine the results to determine whether or not the program changed behavior and attitudes. The goal is to provide these studies as models for reducing distracted driving in other cities and states.

‪Not everyone is on board with the concept though. Groups such as the Consumer Electronics Association have pushed back against anti-texting legislation, insisting policy initiatives should encompass the many other forms of distraction besides cell phones. Steve Kidera spokesman for the C-E-A tells us that if using devices while driving is illegal, then things like eating, smoking and grooming should be too, and that there should be laws passed on safe driving rather than banning specific electronics.