Month-long, statewide distracted driving crackdown starts April 1

Law enforcement agencies throughout New Jersey will be partnering for the next month to conduct a high visibility distracted driving enforcement campaign.

New Jersey’s “UDrive, UText, UPay” law enforcement campaign begins April 1, 2021, and runs though the end of the month throughout the state. During the enforcement effort, “officers will be assigned to conduct proactive enforcement operations utilizing marked vehicles [and] unmarked vehicles.”

During the campaign, law enforcement officers will be targeting drivers who engage in distracted driving behaviors, including texting, talking on a hand-held phone, eating and drinking, talking to other people in the vehicle, or using a GPS device.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2,841 people were killed in distracted driving crashes and an estimated 400,000 people were injured in 2018 alone. In New Jersey, driver inattention was listed as a contributing circumstance in 50 percent of the state’s crashes in 2018. Driver inattention was in fact listed as a contributing factor in crashes at a rate seven times higher than that of the next highest contributing factor (speed).

New Jersey is one of eight states nationally to receive dedicated federal funds this year to tackle the issue of driver distraction. This federal funding will be used for police overtime enforcement grants at the local level as well as a statewide multimedia public awareness campaign on this important issue.