NYPD Announces 24-Hour Crackdown on Cell Phone Use While Driving

Look out!

If you’re texting or talking on the phone while driving, put your cell phones away. Beginning Tuesday at midnight, the New York City Police Department will start a 24-hour enforcement operation across the five boroughs.

Police will be on the lookout for drivers talking or texting on their cell phones while behind the wheel. The initiative is part of the NYPD’s focus on traffic infractions linked to death and injury.

While it’s been illegal for years, individuals using hand-held cell phones while driving in New York City during the crackdown face a fine of $100. In addition, the state Department of Motor Vehicles will impose two points on the driving records of all driving offenders.

Bed-Stuy residents seem to agree with the enforcement, stating it’s a growing danger in the neighborhood and time to address the problem.

“I’ve actually known two accidents that have happened because the driver was texting,” said 36-year-old Bed-Stuy resident Ginger Michelle. “I support the law, because trying to hold a phone while driving slows down your reaction time.”

Michelle said she is a driver and often finds a need to talk on the phone herself while driving, but that she always uses a headpiece and always insists that others do so as well. “If I’m talking to my mother and I hear she’s driving, I’ll always ask her first whether she’s wearing a headpiece.”

In 2009, the NYPD issued on average 617 summonses a day to drivers using hand-held cell phones.  In March of 2011, the NYPD launched a similar crackdown, in which 6,882 summonses were issued within 24 hours.

Officials say it was the imbalance between violations for texting while driving versus talking while driving that led to the new, harsher rule.

“If you text while driving it’s a two point violation and a $150 fine while cell phone use was only a $100 fine and no points. So by drafting this new regulation it will make distracted driving laws consistent," said David Sampson, executive deputy commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Harry Lopez, 56, has been a Bed-Stuy resident 20 years. He says he gets around the neighborhood mostly on foot, and finds the problem of cars not paying attention to pedestrians a serious problem.

“They really need to aggressively tackle that, or more people are going to get killed,” said Lopez. “It’s a danger to pedestrians and other drivers, because they’re driving on the street and not paying attention.

"I’ve even seen a police officer texting while he was driving his car... Mainly it’s the texting thing that draws people’s attention away from the road,” Lopez said.

Bed-Stuy resident Malik Rahman, 28, says he sees both sides of the argument, because, he admits, he has been guilty of driving while talking on the phone.

“I mean, I don’t know how much this is going to stop it,” said Rahman. “I know a lot of times on the highway, I’ve seen people driving and are out of control looking down trying to text. I think people should just wear a headpiece.”

Sampson said they hope the new enforcement will become a deterrent much in the way that when the seat belt law was first drafted decades ago:

"At first there was a very little compliance with it and now New York States leads the nation with 90 percent seat belt use,” Sampson said. “We hope we can have the same impact because distracted driving has now become one of the most serious problems on our highways today."

Still, just knowing that police will be on the lookout may make enough people think twice about the urgency to talk while behind the wheel.

“Well I do know one thing-- I don’t want to be hit with a $100 fine just for talking on the phone,” Rahman said.