HOUGHTON – The Houghton County Sheriff’s Department wants to educate and remind motorists to keep school buses and children safe while on the roads.

Dristacted driving can be as much of a hazard as driving while intoxicated.

The department, in its campaign, “Just Drive” to protect school chilren, wants to stress avoiding what is called distracted driving.

Distracted driving is driving while doing another activity that takes your attention away from driving. Distracted driving can increase the chance of a motor vehicle crash, according the Center for Disease Control and Prention (CDC). Distracted driving activities include things like using a cell phone, texting, and eating. Using in-vehicle technologies (such as navigation systems) can also be sources of distraction. While any of these distractions can endanger the driver and others, texting while driving is especially dangerous because it combines all three types of distraction.

Kieran Hopkins, in his distracteddriveraccidents.com article “Is Texting While Driving More Dangerous Than Drunk Driving?” reported that according to Driving While Intoxicated attorney in Houston, Texas, “the answer is yes. ‘In 2014, 3,179 people were killed and 431,000 were injured due to car accidents involving distracted drivers and the number is rising every year. Drunk driving claimed 9,967 lives in 2014 and was responsible for only 290,000 injuries, a number that decreases each year.'”

the National Law Review, in its article “Distracted Driving vs. DUI: The Legal Consequences,” backed up Hopkins’ report.

“With the explosion of cell phones in the consumer marketplace, texting and driving has emerged as a national health crisis for individual motorists, the public, and the courts,” the Review stated in. “In 2013, 10 percent of all fatal crashes involved distraction, resulting in the deaths of 3,154 people. Additionally, it is estimated that another 424,000 people were injured in accidents involving distracted drivers. In addition to texting while driving, other types of distracted driving include talking on cell phones, eating, using in-dash electronics, and any other activity that takes a driver’s attention away from the road.”

According to statistics released by the Houghton County Sheriff’s Department, drivers who use hand-held devices are four times more likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves, while text messaging while driving creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted.

The sheriff’s department points out that distracted driving increases the risk of motorists creating a hazardous – or deadly- situation for school buses and children on their way to and from school.

A person found guilty by the court of distracted driving or using a mobile device while driving is responsible for a civil infraction with a fine of up to $200.