The Danbury Police Department, along with the Connecticut Department of Transportation’s Highway Safety Office, is continuing the “U DRIVE. U TEXT. U PAY.” initiative. It's an effort to crackdown on motorists who choose to text, talk or otherwise distract themselves from the task of driving by using a hand-held mobile phone.
Brookfield and Ridgefield are also among the participating departments.
The campaign will run from August 3rd through the 16th and marks the second time this year law enforcement agencies will mobilize by adding special patrols.
According to surveys conducted last year’s crackdown, there was an eight percent drop in mobile phone use by drivers at observation locations throughout municipalities where police conducted enforcement. Danbury Police spokesman Lt. Christian Carroccio says the drop in observed use is encouraging, and demonstrates the need to reinforce to motorists that mobile phone use while driving is both dangerous and illegal.
Nearly 50 law enforcement agencies including both state and local police are again participating in this operation. The last operation, which took place during April 2016, resulted in over 12,000 citations issued to motorists who chose to ignore Connecticut’s distracted driving laws.
Under Connecticut’s cell phone and texting law, violations involve heavy fines, ranging from $150 for a first offense, $300 for a second violation, and $500 for each subsequent violation.
