Sting operation busts distracted drivers caught texting behind the wheel

If you think people are getting better about putting their phones down when driving, you may want to watch out.

A local police sergeant believes the problem with distracted drivers is as bad as it's ever been.

In a sting operation, police officers in Burlington stopped distracted drivers who had been paying more attention to their phones than the road.

On Friday afternoon, Sgt. Gerard McDonough, who runs the traffic division at the Burlington Police Department, walked up and down Burlington Mall Road, looking for drivers distracted by their phones.

Once he spotted a distracted driver, Sgt. McDonough would radio over to uniformed officers about a hundred yards up the street, who would then pull over the drivers.

Burlington officers ran the same operation Tuesday, where they said in eight hours they stopped 144 distracted drivers. On Friday, officers stopped 26 drivers in less than an hour.

The number one excuse from drivers was that they had been using their GPS on their phones. In Massachusetts, you can't text, email or look at the internet while driving, but it;s still legal to use a mapping system.

Sgt. McDonough says the biggest giveaway if the driver is telling the truth is by paying attention to the movement of their fingers. If the thumb is scrolling, then it's a good bet that driver is not looking at their GPS.

"The message that you're reading, whether it's email or text, it cant be that important," said Sgt. McDonough. "If you think that it is, pull the car over, find a safe spot and take your message there."

After conducting these operations for a year, McDonough says the problem seems to be getting worse.

Cox Media Group