Belmont Police Have 'Zero Tolerance' For Driving Texters

[Editor's note: The following was submitted by the Belmont Police Department.]

Beginning April 1 and continuing all the Belmont Police Department will be participating in ‘zero tolerance’ enforcement efforts for illegal cell phone use and texting violations as part of California’s annual Distracted Driving Awareness Month. 

While increased enforcement will be the focus during the entire month, two "maximum enforcement" days have been designated for April 3 and April 16, where Traffic Officers will be deployed for the specific task of targeting illegal cell phone and texting violations. 

Distracted driving is a serious traffic safety concern that puts everyone on the road at risk, joining speeding and alcohol as leading factors in fatal and serious injury crashes.  As a result, law enforcement across the state, including the Belmont Police Department, are increasingly cracking down on cell phone use and texting. 

Drivers who use hand-held devices are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves.  Younger, inexperienced drivers under 20 years old have the highest proportion of distraction-related fatal crashes.   In addition, studies show that texting while driving can delay a driver’s reaction time just as severely as having a blood alcohol content of a legally drunk driver.

“We all know that talking on our cell phones while driving is distracting, but that doesn’t stop some people from continuing to do it,” said Belmont Police Chief Dan DeSmidt. 

“This effort is intended to educate our community about the dangers of distracted driving.We hope that once people see the statistics and realize the danger involved, they will change their driving habits to help protect themselves, their families and others on the road” Chief DeSmidt added.

The Belmont Police offer the following tips to drivers:

•    Turn off your phone and/or put it out of reach while driving

•    Include in your outgoing message that you can’t answer while you are driving

•    Don’t call or text anyone at a time when you think they may be driving

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