Law Enforcement from the Moorhead Police Department, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, and the MN State Patrol worked another four hour block focusing on distracted driving today using grant funding through the Towards Zero Deaths initiative. Officers again rode on a school bus provided by the Moorhead School District, while other officers were in patrol cars stopping drivers who were violating MN distracted driving laws. The goal was to increase driver’s awareness around school buses and to enforce distracted driving laws; which often leads to driver’s committing school bus stop arm violations.
Today officers stopped 64 vehicles and issued 27 citations for distracted driving.
Our efforts were to send the message that using an electronic device to actively receive or send information is not only against the law, but also very dangerous. A few cases today showed that message still is not clear to everyone. One person was cited twice today for distracted driving using his device to receive or send data. The violations were estimated to be only an hour from each other. In a second case, a male who was cited today shared that his girlfriend was cited yesterday for the same offense by our enforcement wave while driving the same car. At least two vehicles were witnessed going into the oncoming traffic lanes while the drivers were texting before an officer could stop them.
Busted on the Bus now has a total of 137 vehicles that were stopped and 47 citations have been issued for distracted driving. During the last two days the Moorhead School District reported zero new stop arm violations. The school year total for stop arm violations is 186.
Officers in Clay County will continue to focus on distracted driving violations through April 23rd.
Extra enforcement and education efforts are part a grant award by the Toward Zero Deaths traffic safety grant program. A primary vision of the TZD program is to create a safe driving culture in Minnesota in which motorists support a goal of zero road fatalities by practicing and promoting safe and smart driving behavior. TZD focuses on the application of four strategic areas to reduce crashes – education, enforcement, engineering, and emergency medical and trauma response.
Lt. Deric Swenson 218.299.5202
