Derby police issued 129 tickets and made two arrests last week as part of a crackdown on cell phone use while driving.
The city’s police department is one of about 50 law enforcement agencies in Connecticut taking part in the two-week enforcement effort, which ends at the end of this week.
The Valley Indy observed the crackdown in action Friday, during which officers gave out about 10 tickets in an hour.
But that doesn’t mean Derby police ticketed every driver illegally using a cell phone Friday. Far from it.
There were so many people (allegedly) using their cell phones while driving, police had to pause the effort several times so the cops writing the tickets could keep up.
How It Works
Derby had five officers assigned to the task on Friday on Route 115 near the Catholic War Veterans hall.
It was a quasi-covert operation, as a plainclothes officer was standing on the sidewalk on Route 34 not too far away.
The sidewalk cop would observe a person on his or her cell phone — or observe the motorist using the phone in some way — and then radio the other officers with precisely what he saw.
The information delivered by the Serpico looking cop was remarkably detailed — the hand the cell phone was in, and, in some cases, the phone’s color or make.
As the car approached a stop sign on Derby Avenue, Lt. Justin Stanko would motion for the offending motorist to pull into a parking lot, where the other officers waited to process the violations.
Why?
One of the motorists stopped Friday was driving a yellow work van with a U.S. flag hanging between the driver’s and passenger’s seats.
It was obviously a cruddy way to end the work week.
“This is BULL****!,” the driver said after a reporter approached.
He probably summarized the way people feel about these “targeted enforcement” efforts — at least some readers who post on ValleyIndy.org and the publication’s Facebook page.
Critics allege the crackdowns are just a way to drum up some money for a cash-strapped government.
But that’s not the case, police said. It’s about safe roads.
“The state is not trying to make money off this. They want to see the numbers go down, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be happening,” said Stanko, the police department’s operations commander.
The lieutenant’s comments are rooted in data.
Research confirms the equation: cell phone use + driving = danger.
A driver using a cell phone is four times more likely to crash than a driver not using a device, according to research reports in 1997 and 2001.
A 2006 research project equated using a cell phone while driving to driving with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent.
“Distracted driving” in general — whether it’s cell phone use, a GPS device or something else in the car — is credited with killing an estimated 3,300 people a year and injuring another 400,000.
But people still do it, which is where crackdowns like the one in Derby come in.
A 2014 research report from the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine cites the need for a three-pronged approach when it comes to combating distracted driving — enactment of laws, education of the public, and enforcement by police.
The cell phone crackdowns — which are heavily promoted by police and state agencies before, during and after the events — are a combination of education and enforcement.
The Derby enforcement action was funded by state and federal money. It augmented regular patrols.
Bad Luck Drivers
None of the drivers stopped Friday were particularly happy about getting a ticket. The Derby police officers writing the tickets remained deadpan, even as the motorists lost their cool a bit.
One driver in a white van seemed to take it in stride.
“Please be gentle!” he joked as a police officer walked from his van to run the driver’s license through a computer.
A few of the drivers were confused as to the law in the state regarding using cell phones in cars.
“A common misunderstanding is that if you’re stopped at a red light, you can look at your phone. You can’t check a text message while stopped at a red light,” Stanko said.
Some of the drivers initially denied they were using their phones when Stanko stopped them. But they stopped talking once they were advised they were seen by a spotter before Stanko pulled them over.
The driver of the yellow van said he had his cell phone in his hand but wasn’t talking on it. The spotter must have seen him gesturing with his hands while talking to his passenger, he said.
Another driver told police her driver’s license was expired, and that she was driving because her husband was dizzy. He was nodding off in the passenger’s seat.
“This expired 10 years ago?” Sgt. John Netto said.
“I know, I’m just being honest with you,” she said.
The husband came to life once Derby police said they would have to tow his car because he didn’t have proof of insurance. The insurance had expired 24 hours earlier.
“I need this to make a living!” he said, at one point getting out of the vehicle as Derby police gave him time to call his insurance carrier.
Then there was the driver of a Saturn Vue whose car reeked of marijuana from five feet away.
She said she had a prescription to use the marijuana.
“That doesn’t mean you can do it in your vehicle while driving, you understand?” Netto asked.
The driver indicated she may have smoked in the car earlier.
“This is not fresh weed. It probably baked inside my car and now I’ve rolled my windows down,” she said.
“Let’s just take it one step at a time,” Netto said. “Relax.”
“You don’t understand. Every time I get f***** with. I don’t understand. My seatbelt is on, my car is legit,” she said.
Police later said her prescription checked out.
Are These Effective?
The state’s efforts to combat distracted driving hasn’t gone unnoticed.
A 2014 story posted on the website of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety noted that “high-intensity” and highly publicized efforts like the one happening in Derby reduce the number of people using cell phones while driving.
But the efforts haven’t been shown to decrease the number of distracted-driving crashes. That might be because cell phones are only one of a growing number of electronic devices that distract people while driving.
“After this high-intensity enforcement, the number of drivers observed holding a hand-held cellphone to their ear fell 57 percent in Hartford and 15 percent in the comparison communities of Bridgeport and Stamford, Conn. In Syracuse, the number of drivers observed engaged in hand-held phone conversations declined 32 percent. At the same time, the practice also decreased in the comparison community of Albany, N.Y., by 40 percent,” according to the story.
