Syracuse Police have handed out 924 tickets since they started their crackdown against people using phones while driving on April 8th. Captain Shannon Trice, the Syracuse commanding officer of the traffic division, says most of the tickets have been given to drivers in downtown Syracuse.
Driving and using a phone has been a major problem all over the United States. It has become so dangerous that it's been compared to driving under the influence.
"Some studies have even likened talking or texting on the cell phone to the equivalent of being .08 blood alcohol level, which is a DUI," said Trice.
Trice says texting and driving is involved in 20 percent of all accidents. He says it would translate to around 1,000 accidents a year in Syracuse.
Trice says he knows people are not going to change their habits right away.
"It's going to take a while to change the culture," says Trice. "The culture right now is hey we know there's a law against driving with a cellphone or texting. However, we do it anyways because no one is going to enforce the law, which has been basically true."
The crackdown runs until Saturday, April 17th. Trice says the next crackdown will be sometime in July.
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