Full Notification

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness month and the Los Altos Police Department is joining law enforcement agencies in the Bay Area and statewide to crack down on distracted driving.

"U Drive. U Text. U Pay." is a national high-visibility enforcement campaign coordinated by the U.S. Department of Transportation. This campaign will run through the month of April and includes intense anti-texting enforcement coupled with community outreach to spread the word out about the dangers of distracted driving. The successes of the Click It or Ticket and Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaigns have proven that the combination of tough laws, targeted advertising and high-visibility enforcement can change people’s risky traffic safety behaviors.

Common distracted driving behaviors include:

• texting
• talking on non-hands free cell phones
• reading maps/GPS, books and newspapers
• eating and drinking
• changing CDs or radio stations

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has identified texting and cellular phone use as the fastest growing distraction and associated factor in traffic collisions.  The National Safety Council estimates 1.4 million traffic accidents occur annually due to distracted driving behaviors.

Facts You Might Not Know:

• Teenage drivers (under age 18) are not permitted to use hands-free technology while driving.
• The average text message takes a driver’s eyes off the road long enough to drive the entire length of a football field.
• More than 25% of all car crashes result from the use of a handheld mobile device.
• Mobile device use while driving increases the risk of crashing by 4 times.
• In 2012, there were 3,328 people killed and 421,000 injured nationwide in distracted driving related accidents.
• The University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute reports that a quarter of teens respond to a text message once or more every time they drive.

The Los Altos Police Department is committed to seeing a decrease in the number of traffic collisions that are caused by distracted driving. This can only be accomplished through the diligent awareness and cooperation of the public – so please, drive safe and focus on the road.