North Shore police departments hope increased enforcement of distracted driving laws prohibiting texting and the use of hand-held cellular phones while driving will reduce accidents.
When the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police partnered with the American Automobile Association April 24 through April 28 with Distracted Driving Awareness Week, departments in Lake Forest, Highland Park, Lake Bluff, Winnetka and Wilmette were among those who stepped up.
As the number of tickets and warnings handed out during the five-day period are compared to numbers for last year and this year so far, it shows Highland Park, Lake Forest and Lake Bluff have actively created awareness all along.
Part of the reason for the push the last full week of April is the rising number of traffic fatalities arising from distracted driving, according to a news release from the Lake Forest Police Department.
The release cited statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showing a nine percent increase in deaths attributed to distracted driving between 2014 and 2015. In 2015, 10 percent of fatal crashes, 15 percent of injury crashes and 14 percent of all collisions were reported as arising from distracted driving.
In research conducted by Cambridge Mobile Telematics, a company devoted to creating applications for automobile insurance companies, 25 percent of all drivers involved in a crash used a phone within one minute of a collision, according to a May 8 Chicago Tribune story.
“When people text or drive while on the phone they are just waiting for an accident to happen,” said Deputy Highland Park Police Chief Tim Wilinski.
Distracted driving includes operating a motor vehicle while using a hand held cellular device or texting while driving, according to Lake Forest Deputy Police Chief Rob Copeland. He said those were the two distracted driving violations the city’s officers watch most closely.
During the awareness week, Wilmette made 150 traffic stops when officers observed drivers using hand held cell phones, according to an email from Deputy Police Chief Kyle Murphy. Winnetka made 63 stops writing 42 tickets and 15 warnings, according to an email from police spokesperson Marc Hornstein.
There were fewer citations citations issued in Lake Forest and Lake Bluff. Lake Forest wrote one ticket, one warning and 14 administrative citations, according Copeland. He said administrative citations are written under city ordinances rather than state law.
In Lake Bluff, Sgt. Eric Gehrke said the department was shorthanded during the week designated by the state police chiefs and AAA and unable to make a special effort. Officers in the village wrote one ticket and three warnings as opposed to one warning for the same period last year.
While Wilmette and Winnetka did not provide statistics for 2015, 2016 or the first four months of 2017, Lake Forest, Lake Bluff and Highland Park did to varying degrees. Highland Park did not provide 2015 information.
In 2016, Highland Park police interfaced with 976 drivers using a hand-held cellular device, according to Wilinski. He said of those 976 incidents 189 tickets were issued, 746 written warnings and 41 verbal warnings. For the first four months of 2017, he said there were 10 verbal warnings, 175 written warnings and 35 tickets.
In Lake Bluff there was a dramatic increase in enforcement between 2015 and 2016 while there was a drop in Lake Forest. Gehrke said in 2015, Lake Bluff issued one ticket and six warnings. Last year 60 drivers got warnings and 23 received tickets. For the first four months of 2017, 27 motorists were warned and seven were ticketed.
Lake Forest had a different experience. Copeland said fewer officers were devoted exclusively to traffic patrol in 2016 because of other needs but this year is closer to 2015 levels. Lake Forest wrote 232 tickets for distracted driving in 2015, 142 last year and 73 through April 30.
“Officers are answering calls to citizens needing assistance,” said Copeland. “When we are able to dedicate an officer to traffic (patrol) it makes a difference. When we have increased call volume with limited resources we have less time for traffic enforcement.”
Both Copeland and Wilinski said speeding, disobeying traffic control devices and cell phone use are the three things officers watch for while on patrol. Wilinski said complaints from the public are a factor too.
While both Wilinski and Copeland said there are no statistics available to determine how many rear end collisions are attributable to distracted driving, they said they believe it is a factor. Copeland said he estimates it could be as much as 50 percent.
While numbers vary in the suburbs, distracted driving enforcement in Chicago is becoming nonexistent, according to the same Tribune story. Police in the city issued 45,594 tickets for cell phone use in 2014, 25,884 in 2015 and 186 this year.
DailyNorthShore.com reporters Emily Spectre and Julie Kemp Pick contributed to this story.