More Police Vigilance, Tickets During Distracted Driving Awareness Week
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Expect to see police being more vigilant this week in giving out warnings and tickets on this Distracted Driving Awareness Week in Illinois.
In Lake Zurich, for instance, two officers will be dedicated to just looking for drivers who are texting or talking on their phones without being hands-free. Other officers will also give out warnings and tickets when they can said Officer Eric Bereza. WBBM's Bernie Tafoya reports.
"I did a study approximately three weeks ago and in four-hour period, I was able to stop 14 separate drivers that violated the cellphone law and that was besides the other ones I saw but I just couldn't get around to stopping," said Officer Bereza.
Officer Bereza said some of the motorists told him they believed that, if they were using their cellphones while at a stop sign or stop light that it was legal. He said it is not, as you can still be ticketed for it.
Another motorist told him she was on her cellphone to call her boyfriend to tell him she was pregnant. Officer Bereza said the woman had her pregnancy test results with her in the car. He issued a warning and told her that, next time she needs to use her phone while in the car, to pull over on the side of the road or go to a parking lot to make the call.
A recent AAA Foundation study found most motorists (80 percent) agree that texting while driving is a serious threat to safety, yet nearly half of them (40 percent) report having done it.
Officer Bereza said, he's seen everyone from inexperienced 16-year-old drivers using their cellphones while driving, to 70-year olds with decades of driving experience.
Officer Bereza said it takes four-to-five seconds to read and write a text and that, during that time, a car can travel the length of a football field while the driver's eyes are off-the-road.
