The Evanston Police Department is focusing this month on drivers who talk or text on their cell phones while driving.
So if you drive a car and you know what’s good for you, you’ll put down that cell phone and pay attention to your driving, they say, as they participate in a program funded with federal highway safety dollars and administered by the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Otherwise, they warn, if you drive with a phone in one hand, you can expect a ticket in the other.
With traffic fatalities on the rise in Illinois and across the country, the Evanston Police Department is committed to reducing easily preventable crashes caused by distractions such as texting or talking on a cellphone.
Texting while driving distracts the driver visually, manually, and cognitively, putting everyone on the road at risk. Sending or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent of driving blind at 55 mph for the length of an entire football field, police contend.
Motorists can expect to see increased patrols and enforcement zones across Illinois as part of the April 16-30 distracted driving enforcement. The Evanston Police Department will be ticketing drivers who text or use their cellphones while driving.
If only ticket for walking with phone/texting
Multiple times a day I see NU/K-12 students and even adults walk down streets and even cross busy streets with heads buried in their devises or at least minds not on where they are walking.
They don’t see/hear people or even cars heading towards them.
Several cities have a $50 fine or crossing a street using an electronic devise.
texting
it’s just too bad that there aren’t and can’t be citizens’ arrests. Too many people do this, and the police have better things to do, and they can’t be on street corners. Have you ever seen young ladies (nannies?) pushing strollers right against traffic without even looking?….VERY scary!