Still using a phone while driving in Fresno? Police issued 10 tickets a day for it in April
Distracted driving remains an issue in Fresno more than a decade after lawmakers made it unlawful to use a cellphone while driving, police said Monday.
Fresno police handed out 296 tickets in all of April, what potentially amounts to almost $52,000 in fines, according to police. That’s almost 10 tickets a day during April, which was Distracted Driving Awareness Month.
Police gave out 1,392 distracted driving citations in all of 2021, an average of fewer than four tickets a day for the infraction, police said.
A first-time offense carries a fine of $175 but the driver’s record is spared of a point, police said. A person who gets a second infraction within three years of their first gets a ding on their record and higher fines.
California added a distracted driving law in 2008, which says drivers are not allowed to hold their phone or other electronic device while driving. That includes talking on the phone, texting or using an app.
Assembly Bill 47 increased the minimum citation fine in 2021 to $162, up from what was initially a minimum of $20.
In California, there were an estimated 3,413 traffic fatalities in the first nine months of 2021, up 16% from the same period in 2020, according to National Safety Council estimates. Those fatalities resulted from multiple different factors and not solely distracted driving.
Funding for police enforcement programs were provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to police.
