Police issued ‘Unplugged and Alive’ ticket books
Countywide initiative targets drivers who talk and text
Asbury Park police, along with law enforcement officers across Monmouth County, are armed with an additional ticket book for the month of October in an effort to keep residents “Unplugged and Alive,” a campaign to raise awareness to the dangers of cell phone use while driving.
Drivers pulled over by police for texting or talking while driving could be issued a warning [shown above], at the officer’s discretion. If given a warning, the driver has 15 days to log on the campaign website at unpluggedandalive.com and watch an eight-minute video detailing the dangers of cellphone use while driving and take a pledge not the drive distracted.
If the driver does not comply, the agency that wrote the warning will mail a summons to the driver.
In a city where Asbury Park police Deputy Chief Anthony Salerno said speeding is already an issue, the initiative is “very much welcome and needed,” he said, and police will redouble their efforts to crack down on anyone who is spotted using a cellular device behind the wheel.
He likens the effort to the “Buckle Up” and “Click it or Ticket” campaigns, which began in the 9os, to make drivers aware of their legal obligation to wear seat belts.
“As law enforcement officers, we are looking to change a culture just like we did over two decades ago with seat belts,” he said. “Back then, people didn’t wear seat belts — they do now.”
Salerno praised the initiatives use of a warning ticket as a “very powerful strategic effort” to give drivers an opportunity to comply with an important law.
“Hopefully, as a law enforcement agency, we can change a behavior that is deadly,” he said.
The initiative was announced Tuesday at a joint press conference held by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, Monmouth County Association of Chiefs of Police and the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders.
To raise the awareness of the dangers of texting or talking on a handheld device while driving on county roadways the agencies have challenged all county residents and those who work in Monmouth County who possess a valid permit or driver’s license to log on to unpluggedandalive.com and “Take The Pledge” not to text or talk on a cell phone without a handheld device while driving.
“There are innumerable distractions for every driver on the road from our cell phones, passengers, radios, and everything imaginable that grabs our attention inside and outside the vehicle. But we must choose to focus our attention on driving and it starts with a simple pledge to pay attention,” Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni said in a release issued after the press conference.
“Distracted driving is dangerous, but that knowledge alone does not seem to deter drivers from texting and driving and from using cell phones without a hands-free device,” said Monmouth County Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor Lori Linskey. “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) indicates the average time a driver’s eyes are off the road while texting is approximately five seconds. When traveling at 55 miles per hour, that’s enough time to cover the length of a football field. Imagine driving the length of a football field at 55 miles per hour while wearing a blindfold.”
About nine people are killed each day in the United States in a distracted driving incident, and more than 1,150 people are injured in crashes involving a distracted driver, according to the NHTSA.
In 2012, 171.3 billion text messages were sent in the US every month, according to CTIA—The Wireless Association. Texting has become so important in our method of communication, the average American now sends or receives more than 40 texts per day, and those in the 18-24 age group are texting more than 100 times a day, according to a recent Pew Research Center study.
“The sad part of the story is that many of those texts are either sent or received from behind the wheel of a moving vehicle, and that is a very dangerous place to be a social butterfly,” said Monmouth County First Assistant Marc C. LeMieux.
For more information about the Unplugged and Alive campaign visit unpluggedandalive.com
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