RTPD Join Statewide Crack Down On Distracted Driving This April

Robbinsville Township Police are among several departments across the state participating in New Jersey's UDrive. UText. UPay. enforcement campaign from April 1-30, 2022.

The high-visibility law enforcement initiative will target motorists who engage in dangerous distracted driving behaviors, including talking on hand-held cell phones and sending text messages while driving. 

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3,142 people were killed in distracted driving crashes in the United States in 2019 alone, with an estimated 400,000 individuals injured. Driver inattention has remained the most frequently cited cause of fatal and incapacitating crashes in New Jersey, over seven times higher than the total crashes cited for unsafe speed over the five-year period from 2015 to 2019.

Driver inattention was a contributing circumstance in nearly 40 percent of crashes in New Jersey in 2019. Sending or reading a text message takes a driver's eyes off the road for an average of five seconds. At 55 MPH, that is the equivalent of driving the length of an entire football field with your eyes closed.

New Jersey is one of eight states nationally to receive dedicated federal funds in 2022 to tackle driver distraction.

-RT-