How many times have you been driving down the freeway and glanced over to see the person in the car next to you texting on their phone? It's a spooky feeling to realize that car is traveling at 65+mph . . . driverless. Because if you're texting on your phone, you're not driving . . . much less paying attention to what's going on around you.
The California Highway Patrol and the San Diego Sheriff's Department are working together to find people—who are either texting or talking on a cell phone without a hands free device—and cite them. Last week, over 400 citations were written up. The Sheriff's Department said that three citations went to juveniles and 414 to adults.
"The problem with the cell phone is that we stop focusing on our primary objective, which is to get somewhere safely," said Lt. David Gilmore, traffic coordinator for the San Diego Sheriff's department. He reports that distracted driving is very comparable to being drunk behind the wheel.
If you need to answer a text, dial a phone number or do anything that requires more than two seconds of your attention, find a nice little spot and pull off of the road. This simple feat could save a life, even your own.
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