Texting and driving could cost you in Somerset

By Alana Cerrone

acerrone@abc6.com

@Alana_Cerrone

Lisa Dion is a school bus driver for Fisher Bus in Somerset, and from where she sits, she has seen a lot of distracted driving.

"My seat’s higher so I can see down into cars and generally I see a lot of texting."

She has her own concerns about this alarming trend.

"Sometimes they’ll go through my lights!”

Somerset Police Chief George McNeil is hoping to end that trend with help from a $2500 federal grant that will pay to put plain clothes officers on the streets looking for distracted drivers.

"And then they would notify the officer up the street to pull them over because they observed them texting."

And that could cost you up to $100 for your first offense.

Statistics show you’re 23 times more likely to be in a crash while texting.

"It’s caused a lot of accidents a lot of fatalities and in some cases it’s worse than drunk driving."

And don’t think you’re off the hook if you’re just using Facebook or your GPS…anything that makes you take your eyes off the road qualifies as distracted driving.

"If the person’s eyes are down and they have two hands on the keyboard its obvious what they’re doing."

"Just pay attention to what you’re doing you’re driving a huge vehicle that could potentially injure someone or worse."

Somerset officers will be out on the streets from April 8 to 29.

© WLNE-TV 2016