South San Francisco, CA April 10, 2018 Submitted by SSFPD
Put Your Phone Down ad Drive!
As part of the nationwide crackdown in April during Distracted Driving Awareness Month, the South San Francisco Police Department deployed a special traffic enforcement on Monday April 9th. The team of officers issued 75 citations to drivers or distracted driving violations; the vast majority of them were for using a cellphone without being hands-free.
Throughout the rest of the month, the South San Francisco Police Department will continue to work with our law enforcement partners throughout the state to step up enforcement. This is in conjunction with awareness efforts by the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) to discourage distracted driving. Officers will have a special emphasis on enforcing all cellphone and distracted driving laws.
Motorists are reminded of the following regarding the law on distracted driving in California:
- Any use of a cellphone or communication device in any mode for any reason without being hands-free is a violation.
- Even when a phone is in phone holder, the most a driver can access the device is by no more than one tap or one swipe. Any other manipulation, tapping, typing, or additional use is a violation.
- Even when stopped in traffic or stopped at a red light, any use of the cellphone in your hand is still a violation.
- If you do choose to use a phone holder on your windshield, dashboard, or center console, it must be mounted so it doesn’t block any view out of the windshield. An acceptable area for mounting is in the lower left corner of the windshield
The Police Department is deploying extra traffic officers with grant-funded resources on various dates throughout April in city locations with higher numbers of traffic collisions. Violators will be stopped and cited with fines set at $162 for first time offenders. This campaign is funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.