Local law enforcement hosting 24-hour distracted driving blitz

Local law enforcement hosting 24-hour distracted driving blitz

Month.

And local law enforcement is honoring it with a blitz.

Starting tomorrow, five agencies will be conducting at 24-hour "enforcement campaign."

News 18's micah upshaw joins us in the studio to tell us what drivers can expect.

Micah?

We're approaching a year since the state enacted he "hands free law."

Which has made it illegal to even be holding a mobile device while driving.

The law enforcement campaign is called "connect 2 disconnect."

Tomorrow, officers will be conducting what they're calling a "highly visible patrol."

The goal is to get drivers to be more alert and focused on the road.

Officers will be issuing warnings to those breaking the law.

But distracted driving doesn't just encompass using electronics behind the wheel.

Adjusting the radio, grooming, and eating and drinking are also a cause for crashes.

But phone-use behind the wheel still tops these other distractions.

One of the biggest types of accidents that we have on the road are re-ended accidents.

You see it all the time and nine ties out of ten it's somebody looking down at their phone and the light turns green and they start to pull forward and boom, they rear end somebody.

According to lafayette police -- on average, people that text and drive take their attention away from the road for about five seconds.

At 55 miles per hour, that's the equivalent of driving the full length of a football field blindfolded.

Indiana became the 22nd state in the nation to pass this hands-free driving law.

Anyone caught violating it could face fines up to 500- dollars.

Reporting in studio, micah upshaw.

News 18.

Thanks, micah.

The city of west lafayette is