Distracted Driving Awareness Month is over, but the Ohio State Highway Patrol says their enforcement doesn’t stop.
The local post issued 103 citations for distracted driving throughout April, which was the national awareness month.
New Philadelphia Post Lt. Johnnie Maier says any actions being done while operating a motor vehicle is considered distracted driving.
“And those activities would have the potential to distract the driver taking their eyes away from the primary task of driving the vehicle.”
In 2023, Ohio passed a law making it a primary offense to hold a cell phone or other electronic devices.
“There are other distractions that we look for that cause people to drive out of their lane and maybe cause people to crash into another vehicle, ditch, tree, or pole, or something alongside the road, but we are targeting mostly those folks that are on their phone. That’s something that we can visually see.”
Lt. Maier says there is always a need for continual education.
“One of the things we try to remind people is holding your phone out in front of you and having it on speaker phone is still distracting. So, the law if very clear that you have to have the phone up to your ear. I would just ask drivers to take a moment and invest in a mount of some kind and mount it on their dashboard or maybe in the vent of their car.”
So far this year, in Tuscarawas County, there have been 25 distracted-related crashes.
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