It wasn’t hard for police, deputies and troopers to find distracted drivers to ticket during a recent weeklong crackdown in Minnesota, but it was hard in some cases to get the drivers’ attention.
One driver was stopped twice in the same day for texting in Blue Earth County. One trooper reported trying to stop a vehicle for two miles before the driver, who was “extremely distracted by texting,” pulled over. And one man checking the weather on his phone ran a red light and nearly struck a West St. Paul police squad car.
Police statewide handed out 972 citations to drivers for texting while driving during the extra enforcement effort April 11-17. St. Paul police gave out 34 of them, while Minneapolis issued 17.
(See how many tickets your department issued.)
A six-day campaign last year resulted in 909 citations.
The Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety coordinates the campaign. Director Donna Berger urges motorists to put their phones down and eliminate distractions “to stay safe and stay alive.”
“Multi-tasking is often praised in our society, but, behind the wheel, it can be a death sentence,” Berger said. “If you’re looking down at your phone, you may not see that car suddenly stopping ahead of you, that person biking along the side or that oncoming truck because you drifted across the center line.”
Distracted driving contributed to 174 serious injuries and 74 deaths last year in Minnesota, up from 61 deaths in 2014. Drivers who go online or read, compose or send texts and emails face a $50 fine, plus court fees, for a first offense and an additional $225 fine for subsequent offenses.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.