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Crime & Safety

Do You Text or Talk and Drive at the Same Time?

CHP kicks off National Distracted Driving Awareness Month by focusing on drivers using hand-held cell phones, texting, and other distractions. Do you do it? How often? Will increased enforcement change your behavior?

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. As a result, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) has asked law enforcement agencies throughout the state to focus enforcement efforts on drivers using hand-held cell phones, texting and other distractions throughout the month.

California's campaign uses the slogan, "It's Not Worth It," to convey that no text, phone call or other distraction is worth a collision, injury or death.

Even though Healdsburg likes to think of itself as a rural community, distracted driving can still be dangerous, as have shown.

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We want to hear from you: Is it worth it? Do you talk, text and drive? How often? Will increased enforcement change your behavior?

For those of us unwilling to admit that we do it (you know who you are), vote in our poll below - no names attached! Comment below about your habits and how much increased enforcement will change your behavior.

Find out what's happening in Healdsburgwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Here are some related facts and figures, from the state Office of Traffic Safety:

  • 80 percent of vehicle crashes involve some sort of driver inattention.
  • Texting takes your eyes off the road for an average 5 seconds - long enough to travel the length of a football field at 55mph. Most crashes happen with less than 3 seconds reaction time.
  • Over 3,000 people died in the U.S. in 2010 due to distracted driving. 

For more information, please access the California Office of Traffic Safety website.

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