Golden Valley, Metro Police Departments Step Up Texting Enforcement

Drivers, don’t mess with your phones while you’re headed down the road. Golden Valley and other metro police departments are ramping up texting enforcement starting Thursday.

Crystal, Golden Valley, Hopkins, Minneapolis, New Hope, Robbinsdale and University of Minnesota Police Departments are highlighting the issue during the prom and graduation season. 

Driver distraction accounts for about 20 percent of all crashes annually. In the past three years, distracted teen drivers were involved in crashes that resulted in 25 deaths and 4,505 injuries.

Minnesota law bars drivers from reading, composing or sending texts or e-mails, as well as accessing the Web, while the vehicle is “in motion or a part of traffic,” according to the Minneapolis Police Department The law applies even when drivers are at a stoplight or in stuck in traffic. It is illegal for drivers younger than 18 to use a cell phone at any time.