While April represented the state’s crackdown on distracted driving, Burlington Township Police are always working to make roads safer.
Motorists driving through Burlington Township in April have been met with warning signs along the township’s major roads: If you text and drive, you will be fined.
For the Burlington Township Police Department, traffic safety and enforcement eat up most of its time, yet it still seems like there is more that could be done, according to Lt. James Sullivan. So whenever the state offers funding that will allow township police to get more officers out on the roads, they take it.
“We as a department, we were pretty aggressive with grants for awhile,” Sullivan said. “At the beginning of last year, we reinvigorated again and got back into it again.”
For that reason, Burlington Township police applied to participate in the state Division of Highway Traffic Safety 2017 Distracted Driving Crackdown “U Drive, U Text, U Pay” for the second year in a row. With the $5,500 grant they received, Burlington Township police were able to add 25, four-hour shifts of officers between April 1 and April 21.
During the additional crackdown shifts, more than 100 motorists were stopped, and more than 100 traffic violations were issued. Sullivan said it’s hard to say if there was an overall change in the number of violations issued as a result of the campaign, but based off his observations, it does represent an increase.
With emergency situations and other incidents the department responds to on any given day, Sullivan said he appreciates being able to carve out where officers were dedicated solely to road safety.
Sullivan said they were looking out for any number of distracted driving behaviors that threaten local roadways. He said texting while driving has been especially problematic among teens and adults in their early 20s, which he said is probably indicative of a cultural shift in driving behaviors.
While texting and driving is one of the most prevalent sources of distracted driving, motorists diverting their attention while changing their music or gazing away from the road also pose a risk to their fellow motorists, Sullivan said.
In Burlington Township, trying to patrol Route 130 and County Road 541 is a constant struggle, Sullivan said. County Road 541 represents the township’s biggest crash road.
“Per linear mile of road, we get more crashes there than anywhere else,” Sullivan said.
While people may not have been appreciative of the increased scrutiny during the crackdown, Sullivan said he knows residents are grateful for their efforts to try to maintain safe roads in the township.
These type of driving initiatives represent a public awareness issue as well, and when the department announced the crackdown, it received Facebook messages, likes and comments thanking it for its work.
“In the general experience of our officers, people want safer roads,” Sullivan said.
