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The Hamden Police Department participated in the Connecticut Department of Transportation 2019 Distracted Driving High Visibility Enforcement Campaign recently. Hamden Police has participated in this campaign before and just participated in the second phase.

Between Aug. 1 and Aug. 15, the Hamden Police Department was stationed at different locations watching for any drivers who may be distracted. The reason for this campaign is to prevent future crashes.

“The main goal is to educate the public on the dangers of distracted drivers and to prevent crashes,” Sergeant Anthony Diaz said. “And that’s the ultimate goal, to get drivers to pay attention to prevent crashes.”

Over the course of the 15 days, officers gave out over 600 infractions for various violations.

“Well for Aug. 1 to 15, we had 595 infractions for distracting driving, cell phone use, seven infractions for other motor vehicle violations, there were four misdemeanors summonses, which require a court appearance, primarily four driving under suspension and we apprehended five fugitives under outstanding arrest warrants,” Diaz said.

On average, Diaz believes 60-70 people were pulled over in a day.

The Hamden Police Department continues to receive funding for this campaign so they can keep preventing crashes.

“This is a statewide campaign,” Diaz said. “We do have a large number of accidents, and that is why we keep getting the funds, so we can prevent this.”

Previous checkpoint locations included Whitney and Sherman Avenue, Whitney and Mount Carmel Avenue, and Dixwell Avenue and County Parkway.

The Hamden Police Department has been participating in this campaign for almost 6 years now.

Diaz encourages drivers to stay off their phone or to pull off to a safe location if phone usage is needed.

“If you got to make a phone call, pull over to the side of the road in a safe location and access your phone,” Diaz said.