California Cellphone Crackdown Successful

December 28, 2012

Nothing says “Merry Christmas,” like being caught by the cops when you’re breaking the state laws restricting the use of cell phones while driving, and in Sacramento County, roughly 3,000 drivers received that greeting during the “Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other” program that ran there from November 30-December 9.

California was actually one of two states to receive grants for such high-visibility campaigns to curb the use of hand-held cell phone use (including both texting AND talking) while operating a motor vehicle, the Sacramento Bee reports. The other state was Delaware.

California’s program was conducted in eight counties with a total resident population of almost 4 million. The pre-Christmas crackdown was the first of three maximum enforcement periods included in the campaign. The next one is scheduled to take place from February 25 to March 10.

Maximum enforcement generally includes tickets as well as points on your drivers license, so if you’re caught misusing your cellphone during one of these periods, expect to see slightly higher auto insurance rates as a result.