By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
Drivers with the gift of gab are getting ticketed by the busload since New Jersey’s strengthened cell-phone laws went into effect on March 1, allowing police to pull over drivers seen using hand-held phones while driving and hand out $100 summonses.
For local departments, this jump in summonses is all part of an educational process, as motorists get used to a law that restricts something that Plainsboro Chief Elizabeth Bondurant called a part of American society — talking on a cell phone no matter where someone is or what someone is doing.
”It’s become a part of our culture,” said Chief Bondurant.
The numbers seem to vindicate the belief of area police that motorists are still getting used to the new law. The measure has changed cell-phone usage while driving to a primary offense. In the past it was secondary offense only added to a more serious traffic violation.
In Mercer County, cell phone-related tickets jumped six times from February to March, with a total of 305 issued in March, after the law went into effect. In February, 57 motorists were handed summonses in Mercer County, according to the Administrative Office of the Courts.
In Middlesex County, the numbers are even more dramatic.
Before the law went into effect, a total of 130 drivers were ticketed for using cell phones while driving in Middlesex County in February.
But from the debut of the law to the end of March, court statistics show a grand total of 901 cell phone tickets issued, seven times the February number.
At $100 a ticket, that equals about $90,000 in expected ticket revenue.
Local police say the increasing number of tickets issued and the prevalence of the offense is all part of motorists getting used to the new law, which banned something many people continue to do, whether out of ignorance or ambivalence.
”It’s a learning curve, and we’re still in that learning curve,” said Chief Bondurant, whose officers handed out 17 tickets in March, versus only one in February. “We’re not trying to go out there and hammer the public with tickets,” she added.
Plainsboro police said they took steps to educate the public, but officers out on patrol still see the offence happening all over the roadways, despite those efforts.
Police in the township sent information to local businesses and schools about the new law, and even conducted enforcement stations on the roads where drivers talking on their phones were pulled over and issued a warning.
”They have had plenty of media and fair warning,” Chief Bondurant said.
Several officials from departments interviewed about the ticketing trend this week said the enforcement of the new law is in many ways similar to the enforcement of seat belt violations, in both the suspected reasons behind the motorists’ breaking of the rules, and their reaction to getting pulled over by police for those violations.
Frequently being in a hurried state, or simply not thinking before picking up a ringing phone or answering a text message probably results in the violation, according to West Windsor police, who handed out seven tickets in March versus only a single summons in February.
”Everybody can be in a hurry at times,” said West Windsor Lt. Frank Caponi.
He said that people frequently forget to buckle their seat belts, and sometimes a similar situation happens with a ringing cell phone.
The phone rings, and the driver instinctively reaches for the phone and answers the call, forgetting about what the law dictates.
”It will take some time,” Lt. Caponi said.
What often happens with seat belt violators is that an officer pulls a vehicle over and the occupant attempts to surreptitiously buckle the seat belt and act as if no violation occurred.
It’s the same with the cell phone law. Having been pulled over, the motorists quickly click off the call and hide the phone in a pants pocket or in the car’s glove box.
But trying to act like nothing happened is likely a futile effort, according to Chief Bondurant.
”The officer saw the violation prior to the stop and that’s all the officer needs, their observation,” she said.
As with other police departments, Princeton Township’s and its officers are having similar experiences with the frequency of cell-phone violations, which seem to occur everywhere and all the time, according to traffic officers there.
Princeton Township police handed out 37 tickets in March after the law went into effect, while in February only six were issued to motorists.
The big factor has been the change in the law that allows officers to pull over vehicles solely for a driver using a phone, according to Officer Kim Hodges.
”Honestly the violations are so frequent that you don’t have to look very hard to find them,” said Officer Hodges.
In Montgomery Township, officers only handed out three cell-phone tickets since the law went into effect.
Police Director Michael Beltranena said his officers have not been stopping a lot of cars for the offense, although the numbers could increase in the future as the law becomes more established and motorists become more educated.
”The officers of course know that this has become a primary offense,” Mr. Beltranena said.
