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.