Today, Thursday, April 11, 2019, the Methuen Police Department joins with the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Salem, Nh Police Department in a national initiative called National Connect to Disconnect (C2D). This initiative’s goal is to promote the importance of driver attention with an enforcement demonstration.
April is National Distracted Driver Awareness Month. This month is dedicated to make efforts to recognize and educate the dangers of distracted driving and to eliminate the deaths caused by distracted driving.
Chief Solomon and the Men and Women of the Methuen Police Department encourage all of our drivers in Methuen to refrain from activities that divert your attention from the road and affect your awareness and response time as a driver.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) defines distracted driving as “any activity that diverts attention from driving, including talking or texting on your phone, eating and drinking, talking to people in your vehicle, fiddling with the stereo, entertainment or navigation system — anything that takes your attention away from the task of driving.”
Distracted driving has become a huge problem on our roadways. Consider these stats:
- In 2016, 3,450 people were killed in accidents involving a distracted driver.
- In 2015, 391,000 people were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving a distracted driver.
And the biggest problem of all is cell phone use.