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Law

State Highway Patrol Cracks Down On Texting

Law enforcement officials say their efforts to crack down on people who text on their cell phones while driving is resulting in some success. Jessica Jones reports.

A state law banning texting while driving went into effect about a year and a half ago. Since then, the State Highway Patrol has issued about 11 hundred tickets to people who've been texting on the road. Sergeant Jeff Gordon is a spokesman for the department. He says the patrol conducts periodic "Operation Distracted Driver" campaigns to crack down on the practice.

Jeff Gordon: "The whole goal here is not to issue citations, the whole goal is to educate people and make people cognizant and operate a motor vehicle and keep their attention to that, and not to be multitasking while going down the highway. "
Gordon says it can be hard to determine whether a person is texting or just talking on the phone. Phone calls while driving are legal in North Carolina, despite some lawmakers' efforts to ban them as well.

Jessica Jones covers both the legislature in Raleigh and politics across the state. Before her current assignment, Jessica was given the responsibility to open up WUNC's first Greensboro Bureau at the Triad Stage in 2009. She's a seasoned public radio reporter who's covered everything from education to immigration, and she's a regular contributor to NPR's news programs. Jessica started her career in journalism in Egypt, where she freelanced for international print and radio outlets. After stints in Washington, D.C. with Voice of America and NPR, Jessica joined the staff of WUNC in 1999. She is a graduate of Yale University.
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