If you received a citation in Chula Vista for driving with your cell phone this past month, you were not alone.
April was national distracted driving awareness month, and the Chula Vista Police Department was on the lookout for vehicle operators paying more attention to links and likes than crosswalks and lights.
In all, the department conducted a total of 413 traffic stops during four separate five-hour operations, with 393 citations being issued for people driving on their phones, according to CVPD Traffic Officer Brian Carter.
“It’s apparent that, even with the laws, that there are still many people using their phones while they’re driving,” Carter said.
The 393 citations was an increase from the same operation the CVPD conducted in April of 2018, when they initiated 283 stops and issued 267 citations.
Carter said that the increase from last year was more than the department expected, but he offered a simple explanation: “Probably just more people using their phones.”
First time offenders of California Vehicle Code 23123 (a), which states that a person should not operate a vehicle while using a non-hands free telephone, face a $162 fine, but are not charged with a moving violation.
The most recent iteration of the cellphone law went into effect in 2017, and made it illegal to handle a phone in any way while driving, including using a navigation system or changing music.
“There’s enough going on in the car with kids and pets and the radio and GPS that people need to really focus on driving the vehicle and getting to their destinations safely,” Carter said. “The Facebook and Instagram and the text messages can wait until they get to their destination.”
The CVPD put out a news release in the beginning of April to inform city residents about the upcoming operations, and cited preliminary data from the California Highway Patrol which showed 66 deaths and more than 6,500 injuries were due to distracted driving-related crashes in 2017.
Mark Blane, a personal injury attorney located in Chula Vista, said driving while multitasking with a cellphone has become an “epidemic.”
“It’s just an ongoing danger that begins at home and school to kind of educate the younger folks that this is no joke,” Blane said. “It is really another layer of prevention or safety issues because people are just taking it for granted.”
While cell phone use is a common culprit for distracted driving accidents, Blane said it is not the only reason.
“If you think about it, any type of rear-end collision or any car collision that was preventable is distracted driving. It doesn’t have to be with a phone,” he said. “Either you were tuning in to the radio or you were looking in the wrong direction or you were just lost in your head with thoughts, that’s distracted driving.”
Cell-phone use is currently the only citable offense when it comes to not having your mind entirely on the road, according to the CVPD.
