DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa State Patrol (ISP) issued six times more citations for texting while driving in the fiscal year that just ended June 30, the results of a new law allows law enforcement officers to stop drivers who are texting.
In the 2018 fiscal year, Iowa State Troopers issued 1,131 citations for texting while driving. That is up from 182 citations during the 2017 fiscal year.
John Gaspar, a research scientist with the National Advanced Driving Simulator, found that it takes only two seconds to impair a driver’s safety. It usually takes five seconds to send or read a text. At 55 mph, that is the same as driving the length of a football field with your eyes closed, according to the ISP.
“Put down your phone, and focus on your driving,” said Sergeant Nathan Ludwig of the ISP. “Every day and every night, Troopers are on the lookout for drivers who are texting when they should be focused on their driving.”
The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that every day an average of nine people die and more than 1,000 are injured because of a distracted driver. Teens are affected most by texting while driving, the studies show.[wpedon id=”85410″ align=”left”]
Troopers in the ISP have developed a number of innovative methods for finding drivers who are texting, Ludwig said. They take these violations seriously because it puts the texting driver at risk along with everyone else on the road who might be affected by the distracted driver.
Iowa’s new texting-while-driving law made texting while driving a primary offense, which means an officer can stop a driver and issue a citation for texting while driving. Before July 2017, texting was a secondary offense, meaning that officers could only issue a citation for texting while driving if the officer stopped the driver for some other offense.
