The Camden County Freeholder Board’s Division of Highway Traffic Safety is marking National Distracted Driving Awareness Month by warning of the serious threat of texting while driving.
“During the month of April, you will see electronic message boards across Camden County to raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving,” said Freeholder Michelle Gentek, liaison to the Camden County Department of Public Safety. “Drivers that take their eyes off of the road to read or send text messages are a hazard not only to themselves, but to everyone else on the highway.”
Distracted driving is a significant problem on America’s roadways. According to the latest federal data, more than 3,000 people were killed and approximately 420,000 people were injured in crashes involving distracted drivers nationwide. These numbers are likely under-reported because of the difficulty in determining the role distraction plays in crashes.
To keep drivers safe, government entities across the country are joining with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s first coordinated national distracted driving enforcement campaign named: U Drive. U Text. U Pay.
The campaign is providing grants to local agencies that offer deterrence through visible enforcement and issue summonses for relevant motor vehicle violations.
