Eating while driving is a common violation of the distracted driving ordinance passed by the Corpus Christi city council in 2013. The most common driver distraction, however, is talking or texting on a mobile phone. Police will be cracking down on all distracted driving during April.
A crackdown on distracted driving begins April 1 as the Corpus Christi Police Department and the Texas Department of Transportation plan to honor National Distracted Driving Month in April. The national campaign being observed locally focuses on keeping drivers’ attention on the road and not on other activities.
Mobile phones, whether for texting or talking, sit at the top of the list of driving distractions, but driving while eating, putting on makeup or fiddling with radio dials also rate as dangerous activities when behind the wheel.
In 2014, 100,825 traffic accidents were attributed to distracted driving in the state, representing a 6 percent increase from 2013. Of those crashes, 3,214 caused serious injuries and 468 deaths. Nearly one in five crashes in Texas involves distracted driving according to TxDOT.
With those numbers in mind, the CCPD announced it will begin rigidly enforcing the city’s distracted driving ordinance, which has been in place for three years now. That ordinance includes any distractions, but specifically defines eating, putting on makeup or using a mobile phone.
A test run in the city the last week of March found 28 drivers on cell phones, plus 11 other distracted driving violations during a three-hour period at the intersection of Staples St. and South Padre Island Drive.
During the entire month of April, CCPD will be focused on finding and ticketing distracted drivers, especially in school zones, so, keep your eyes on the road and off the sandwich!
