{"id":817,"date":"2023-04-11T07:10:56","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T12:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/?p=817"},"modified":"2023-04-19T07:12:06","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T12:12:06","slug":"april-is-distracted-driving-awareness-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/april-is-distracted-driving-awareness-month\/","title":{"rendered":"April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Illinois Department of Transportation is teaming up with the Illinois State Police and more than 200 local law enforcement agencies to promote\u00a0<strong>Distracted Driving Awareness Month,<\/strong>\u00a0reminding drivers to\u00a0<strong>\u201cDrop it and Drive.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0Throughout April, law enforcement officers will work together to enforce texting and distracted-driving laws.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has become all too common to see people driving while looking at their phones,\u201d\u00a0said Steve Travia, IDOT\u2019s Director of Highways and Chief Engineer. \u201cPeople know texting and driving is dangerous and illegal, but they do it anyway, putting others at risk. This month, drivers will see increased law enforcement efforts, as officers will be stopping and ticketing anyone who is caught texting and driving.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 32,000 people died in distraction-affected crashes from 2011 to 2020. In 2020, there were 3,142 deaths linked to driver distraction, or 8% of all traffic fatalities.\u00a0<strong>Illinois law prohibits the use of hand-held electronic communication devices while driving unless using hands-free mode.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast year, the Illinois State Police issued more than 7,200 citations and almost 10,500 warnings for distracting driving. We\u2019ve already issued more than 1,300 citations and 1,900 warnings this year,\u201d\u00a0said ISP Division of Patrol Deputy Director Col. Margert McGreal. \u201cThe most common distracted driving offenses include talking or texting on the phone. Don\u2019t put yourself and others in danger while driving. Buckle up and put the phone down.\u201d<\/p>\n<h6>To keep your attention on the road, remember these tips:<\/h6>\n<ul>\n<li>If you are expecting a text or need to send one, pull over and park your car in a safe location.<\/li>\n<li>Ask your passenger to be your \u201cdesignated texter.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Do not engage in social media scrolling or messaging while driving.<\/li>\n<li>Cell phone use is habit-forming. Struggling to not text and drive? Activate your phone\u2019s \u201cDo Not Disturb\u201d feature.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Using a mobile phone while driving is dangerous and getting caught can be expensive. Save your money and maybe even a life \u2013 wait until you reach your destination to text or call.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/div>\n<h3 class=\"has-text-align-center\">Remember: \u201cDrop it and Drive.\u201d<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Illinois Department of Transportation is teaming up with the Illinois State Police and more than 200 local law enforcement agencies to promote\u00a0Distracted Driving Awareness Month,\u00a0reminding drivers to\u00a0\u201cDrop it and Drive.\u201d\u00a0Throughout April, law enforcement officers will work together to enforce texting and distracted-driving laws. \u201cIt has become all too common to see people driving while [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":818,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions\/819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}