One in five injury accidents are caused by distracted drivers, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
And high on the list of distractions these days? Texting while driving.
So, for the next two weeks (May 20 to June 2,) the State Patrol is ramping up efforts to enforce Washington state’s laws on texting and/or talking on cell phones while driving, as well as wearing seat belts. Violations of those laws cost drivers $124 each.
The Click It or Ticket campaign comes during the Memorial Day holiday, which is traditionally a time when families go on summer road trips and traffic ramps up.
The state’s Traffic Safety Commission says these efforts work, with seat belt use moving up from 82 percent in 2002 – when the primary seat belt law went into effect – to 97 percent of drivers wearing seat belts today.
Last year, troopers pulled over 11,047 drivers and issued 3,171 seat belt tickets and 1,059 citations for cell phone misuse, according to the Traffic Safety Commission.
The emphasis on texting comes after a 2010 law (Senate Bill 6345) made using a cell phone while driving a primary offense.
Before, state law in Washington wouldn’t allow police officers to pull over a driver for using a cell phone, and they could only be cited for that as a secondary offense. For example, a driver could be pulled over for speeding, and then the officer could notice the driver was on his phone and wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, so additional he could get ticketed for those violations, too.
Drivers are required to use hands-free devices to talk on their cell phones while driving. And for teenagers learning to drive, Senate Bill 6345 clearly says they can’t use a cell phone even with some kind of headset or hands-free device.
The Traffic Safety Commission says state troopers are working in partnership with local police and sheriff deputies in “Spokane, Whitman, Pend Oreille and Ferry Counties, the Cheney, City of Airway Heights, Colfax, Eastern Washington University, Pullman, Republic, Spokane, Spokane Valley and Washington State University Police Departments, the Ferry, Pend Oreille, Spokane and Whitman County Sheriff’s Offices.”