Driving while texting (photo illustration). Catherine Avalone — The Middletown Press


By Viktoria Sundqvist
Middletown Press
More than 32,000 tickets for driving while using a cellphone were issued across Connecticut in 2013, generating more than $2 million in revenue for the state. The violation represented about 8 percent of the 414,837 total traffic tickets written last year.
Connecticut has about 2.5 million active driver’s licenses, so cellphone infractions were issued on average to about 1 in 77 drivers in 2013.
An analysis of the 16,000 tickets issued by local police departments (the rest were issued by state police or departments that did not provide information), using data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, shows that enforcement can differ wildly from town to town, and time of year. Men are ticketed slightly more than women, and the racial breakdown of tickets closely matches Connecticut’s statewide Census demographics, with 84.6 percent going to white drivers compared to a state population that is 84 percent white.
The majority of distracted driving tickets were issued in spring and summer, according to the data collected from each individual department.

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