In an effort to reduce collisions and injuries as well as provide education through enforcement, there will be a multi-agency distracted driving enforcement campaign from Aug. 3 – 9.
The campaign includes the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety and Santa Clara Police Department in partnership with Milpitas Police Department, Los Altos Police Department, Gilroy Police Department, Morgan Hill Police Department, Mountain View Police Department, California Highway Patrol and the Santa Clara County Sherriff’s Office.
These agencies will be conducting high visibility, directed traffic enforcement operations county-wide. The enforcement will be focused on distracted driving violations, but all moving and non-moving violations may be enforced as applicable. Each agency participating will provide 1-2 motor officers for the campaign.
This campaign is in honor of California Highway Patrol Officer Kirk Griess, who faithfully served the people of California as a CHP Officer for 19 years before being killed in the line of duty by a distracted driver on August 10, 2018. The campaign also honors the nine lives lost each day in the United States because of distracted driving.
Each day in the United States more than 1,000 people are injured in crashes that are reported to involve a distracted driver, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC says there are three main types of distraction: visual, taking your eyes off the road; manual: taking your hands off the wheel; and cognitive, taking your mind off of driving. Texting while driving includes all three types of distractions.
“Texting while driving is especially dangerous because it combines all three types of distraction,” says the CDC’s website. “When you send or read a text message, you take your eyes off the road for about 5 seconds, long enough to cover the length a football field while driving at 55 mph.”
Funding for this multi-agency distracted driving enforcement campaign is provided by the California Office of Traffic Safety.
