Texting while driving is illegal in Iowa, and police in a Des Moines suburb showed they were serious about it during a Friday crackdown, KCCI reported.
Police in Clive, a town of 15,000 people located west of Des Moines, said they stopped 73 drivers and issued 28 citations at $100 a pop for distracted driving in less than five hours, the television station reported.
Clive police Officer DeVante Clark said he spent the day searching for drivers who were looking at their phones instead of the road.
"What people don't know is even if you're stopped at a light, you still can't be on your phone unless you're talking on it or using GPS," Clark told KCCI. "It's a traffic violation."
Texting while stopped at a traffic signal is also grounds for a citation, Clark said. Clive police Officer Adam Jones said being distracted for even a second could yield fatal results.
"When you're traveling 55 mph, if you look down at your phone, even for just a few seconds, you traveled the distance of a football field," Jones told KCCI. "So, if you figure that out, I mean, it's a huge factor. It's very dangerous."
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