Danbury Police finished their concerted effort to stop people holding phones and driving with more than 508 people left with a ticket in the other hand.
Danbury Police Sgt. Rory DeRocco, who heads the traffic division, said the division handed out 508 tickets and the rest of the department also ticketed drivers who were talking on hand-held phones or were texting. The final total will take a few more days to figure. The goal is to stop people from distracted driving.
"In addition to the infraction tickets, we also turned 20 misdemeanors, five felony arrests and caught one felony fugitive from justice," DeRocco said.
Those secondary arrests from a minor traffic stop, sometimes referred to as flowering onions, were made famous when Oklahoma City Bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh was taken into custody 90 minutes after the explosion during a routine traffic stop that turned up a handgun, knife, no insurance and a missing license plate.
In Danbury, Officer Paul Carroccio gave a seat belt ticket to a woman on White Street, then saw her on the news that night as a suspect in six bank robberies. He returned to the Police Department, found the ticket and that led to her arrest.
"A lot of big cases are generated from motor vehicle stops," DeRocco said.
Danbury joined other Western Connecticut towns in a federal grant to pay for stricter enforcement against driving while texting or talking with a phone in your hand. In addition to local police, the state police, state Department of Motor Vehicles, state Department of Transportation and the State's Attorney's Office are all involved in the crackdown effort. The campaign slogan is, "Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other."
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