The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates 10% of fatal crashes (3,328) and 18% of injury crashes (421,000) were attributable to distracted driving in 2012. Previous research indicates dedicated law enforcement over a specified period coupled with enforcement-based messaging can reduce observed electronic device use rates. A demonstration, consisting of four high-visibility enforcement (HVE) waves, conducted from April 2010 to April 2011 in Syracuse, New York, and Hartford, Connecticut, saw hand-held phone use drop 32% (from 3.7% to 2.5%) in Syracuse and 57% (from 6.8% to 2.9%) in Hartford (Chaudhary et al., 2014; Cosgrove et al., 2011). Having evidence that high-visibility enforcement is effective in a controlled community setting, the next step was to examine the effectiveness of implementing distracted driving HVE campaigns over a widespread, multi-jurisdictional area. Following a methodology similar to the Connecticut and New York studies, NHTSA initiated two large-scale HVE demonstrations in California and Delaware to examine whether distracted driving-focused HVE can be applied to larger geographic and demographic areas. In November 2012, NHTSA selected the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and the Delaware Office of Highway Safety (OHS) for the demonstration effort. The States were selected among those that banned the use of hand-held cell phones while driving and made it a violation to write, send, or read text-based communication on an electronic wireless device while driving. Both California and Delaware allow for primary enforcement and their bans apply to all drivers. NHTSA, California, and Delaware developed and implemented the HVE programs. The enforcement area in California covered nine counties in the Sacramento Valley Region, encompassing nearly 4 million residents (roughly 10% of California’s population). Enforcement was conducted statewide in Delaware, covering close to 900,000 residents. For each program site, comparison (control) areas were selected based on demographic similarity (i.e., population, density, median income). Media isolation was also considered important to avoid program messages from reaching the comparison area. Portland, Oregon, was selected as the comparison site for Sacramento, and Atlantic County, New Jersey, and New Haven, Connecticut, were selected as Delaware’s control areas.1 The evaluation of the program was conducted by Preusser Research Group. California and Delaware each coordinated and oversaw enforcement efforts. The Highway Safety Offices recruited participating law enforcement agencies, formed agreements, developed enforcement plans, and put reporting systems in place to gather program-related information. Each of the participating law enforcement agencies agreed to conduct three HVE waves within an 18-month project period. The three waves of distracted driving HVE took place from November 2012 to June 2013. California and Delaware highway safety officials worked closely with NHTSA’s Office of Communication and Consumer Information and its contracted media firm. NHTSA was responsible for the development of television and radio advertisement spots and the placement of all media buys. NHTSA also assisted both States with content development for earned media material. The creative material used in this project was identical to that developed and tested for the Hartford and Syracuse pilot projects. The paid media and earned media in California and Delaware used the tag line, Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other. Enforcement in California was conducted by 37 of 40 local police departments in the Sacramento area as well as by the California Highway Patrol. The Delaware campaign represented the State’s first HVE effort to reduce distracted driving. Ninety-eight percent of police departments in Delaware participated in the enforcement campaign (41 out of 42 departments). California law enforcement reported nearly 10,800 tickets for violations involving drivers talking or texting on cell phones and Delaware police reported more than 6,200 tickets, over the course of the three enforcement waves. (Author/publisher)
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