From Maryland State Police:
A cooperative focus on distracted drivers on April 27 along the northern portion of I-95 involved police from multiple departments, some of whom were using unconventional vehicles to identify more than 170 motorists stopped for violations related to driving while distracted.
Dubbed “Operation Trojan Horse,” police used marked and unmarked patrol cars, as well as Maryland Transportation Authority dump trucks during an operation from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. on I-95 from Baltimore City to the Delaware line. Police involved included officers from the Baltimore County Police Department, Maryland Transportation Authority Police, deputies from the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, and troopers from the JFK Highway, Bel Air, and North East barracks.
Troopers in the “Trojan Horses,” or the MDTA dump trucks, identified motorists who were distracted by using cell phones and hand held devices. Police units would then make a stop of the violator and then other supporting units would enforce the “Move Over” law while the stop was conducted. Troopers and officers would then explain the violations to the motorists and express the importance of compliance to these violations. Operation “Trojan Horse” was a concerted effort to enforce and educate motorists of the dangers of distracted driving and failing to move over for emergency vehicles.
This co-operative effort resulted in the following:
172 motorist contacts
113 citations
111 warnings
1 safety equipment repair order
4 commercial vehicles inspected with 1 driver and 1 vehicle being placed out of service
2 drivers with suspended driver’s licenses
Initiatives of this type are already being planned for future enforcement operations.
Were there not enough criminals commiting more serious crime on that day to keep the officers occupied?
They can generate more revenue this way…..
I imagine you both are sincere upstanding citizens, whom have never done anything wrong or have seen wrong doing and are baffled why the police would do this. The cell phone ban while driving and move over law are both laws for good reason. Distracted drivers cause accidents every and harm others, and the move over law was made to help protect emergency workers on the roadways.
Oh shut up already. How about the Maryland State Police focus their efforts on charging criminal illegal aliens. These fence jumpers get a pass but legal citizens get harassed for bullshit charges because these guys refuse to do real police work.
Nailing mommy and daddy speaking on a cell phone is a HUGE WASTE OF TIME FOR THE MARYLAND STATE POLICE TICKET WRITERS OF WORKING HARFORD COUNTY RESIDENTS.
So you are OK with people breaking the law? By the way, immigration is a national law enforcement job. SCOTUS made that clear!
I guess you’re saying that it’s okay for someone texting and driving to drive past a school bus with flashing red lights. I saw the mom pull the kids back so they were not hit by the car.
Safety is a concern that everyone needs to take seriously. It’s not about raising money with fines. I’m pretty sure the police would rather issue a ticket or warning rather than do the paperwork for a fatal accident.
You’re scared of immigrants. That’s not even a thought you came up with yourself, you’re just brainwashed by media and state propaganda.
Couldn’t have said it better myself!
Bob I think you probably watched too many episodes of Adam-12 in your younger years. Police work Is not always car chases, shoot outs, and bank robberies. Police officers perform a myriad of tasks all of which are important and often times not very glamorous. Distracted driving and failing to move to the left for emergency vehicles are big public safety issues which if not addressed can cause a lot of harm to include deaths. You have to run these type of details periodically to remind the motoring public of the seriousness of these offenses. It has nothing in this case to do with ticket revenue.
GOOD! But… I cannot tell you how many times I see State Troopers playing with their phones while driving. I saw a Comcast guy texting the other day, I memorized their vehicles information, my location, time etc, got to work and called their safety line. This morning I saw a constructions truck sit through a green arrow because he was playing with his phone. I hate these retards.
The cell phones are the State Police revenue generator of the year. They use to enforce the seat belt violators to the point of exhaustion. Now they have decided to focus their efforts on phones. This is not an issues that the police should be wasting their resources on. Technology will solve this problem whether it is higher insurance rates for people causing accidents while using phones, cell phone companies using technology to block phone use while cars are in motion or car manufactures that are now required to implement crash avoidance technology in future cars.
I would add that drunk driving, aggressive driving, impaired driving, reckless driving, driving with suspended plates or license, excessive speeding, driving an unsafe vehicle, etc. are the violations that the police should be vigorously enforcing.
Air freshener shouldn’t be hanging from your rearview mirror, seat belt violations, and “you have no front tag on display” are all crap that these guys should not be wasting our taxpayer dollars enforcing.
So basically what you’re saying is it is not an issue until someone dies, then it’s gonna be a big issue. My, aren’t you responsible.
Maybe you will propose a law that people cannot drive in the rain.
Wet roads cause accidents and people may die so lets ban driving in the rain…………better still lets ban driving at night, there are more accidents at night and visibility is poorer.
You’re a tool.
Wet roads can’t be discouraged or prevented. Texting while driving can.
To all of the ungrateful pieces of shit did you ever think that these Troopers save lives and maybe yours , Wake up dumb ass and Thank them ? ?? go home hug your kids and kiss the wife, yes you are welcome
We don’t need the police. They aren’t here to protect us, they’re here to assert greater control over social conflict as deemed by our ruling class. You’re just repeating what television and school drilled into your head.
and you my friend are a jerk!
Cops are jerks, just because they chose the occupation of policing doesn’t make them any more moral or prudent than anyone else. Most things cops do would be land anyone else in jail. Their authority is illegitimate, that’s why they have to use coercion and violence to maintain it.
Jerry…also, the moon landings were staged.
Nah, I just have a historical understanding of the police institution and for the vast majority of our history they haven’t existed. They’re not natural or necessary.
So, you think life in the United States today would be improved with the abolition of laws and law enforcement?
To the idiots who are down on cops for doing their jobs. They uphold ALL laws, not just going after hardened criminals and illegal aliens. They do what they’re told to do, and what we pay them to do. Should they be selective, then, about which laws to uphold and which to ignore?
And to the idiot who said “Wet roads cause accidents,” I’ve driven hundreds of thousands of miles on wet roads on both sides of the Atlantic, and not one of them caused me to be in an accident. Drivers who are impatient or just plain lousy at driving, cause accidents.
You just made a great argument against laws. Do we need laws? Who are they protecting? Do we have a say in what laws exist? Or are laws just arbitrary and reactionary?
So….there being a law against me coming into your home whenever I want to, and taking whatever I want is arbitrary and reactionary?
I this was a great initiative and I hope the police do it more often. When you see people in cars around you trying to text while doing 70mph, it’s easy to see that this is a serious safety issue, particularly for less experienced drivers.
All they have to do is stand across from the 7-11 on Edgewood and look at the cars turning onto Willoughby Beach Road. 3 out of 5 vehicles has someone talking on their cell phone.
They would be fired within the week for racial profiling.
That’s a nog infested part of town…
HA!
Good!!! We need that horse on Harford Co streets too.
Non-super human looks for distracted drivers while watching tag reader, radar display, NCIC, and talking with wife on the phone while flirting with the cute dispatch op. Sees motorist with FOP tags texting, winks at driver and rides on.
In other news; trojan driver gets mad when no one yields for an unmarked car going 90.
***sigh***
Tag Reader has an audible alert, no need to watch.
RADAR has an audible tone & pitch, no need to watch.
Talking with the wife on the phone and radio is near impossible, in many cars the minute you hit the radio button – it interferes with cell phone signal.
Cute dispatch operator? LOL – only in the movies, buddy.
Texting is a primary offense, while using a cell phone is secondary. Define the difference when someone is passing at 65+MPH.
Unmarked car going 90? How is it going 90 if nobody yields?
It’s all a big waste of time. Most people will get PBJ for their tickets. Means nothing. It’s a problem County wide. Nothing more annoying sitting through two green turn arrows because the shit for brains infront of you was gawking at their phone.
The only way to end distracted driving is to make it a criminal offense, or at least, a criminal offense as a result of a crash even if there is no injury and you stayed at the scene.
For this goofy ass state with the Misdemeanors, thinking like a 5 year max term would be good. It would make you prohibited of many things.
i look at it this way, its a ‘message’ that folks no matter where they drive will be cited….everyone who read this article, will think twice before they answer a call or text someone…for that I am grateful..
I’m appalled at how many people are on their phones every time I drive. People think they are able to look at their phones while driving not realizing they are on the shoulder half the time. I would never walk or run on the shoulder of a road after seeing the way people swerve back and forth. It’s scary!
I applaud Maryland Law enforcement for their effort. I don”t know what the amount of the fine is, but it should be high enough to hurt. Second offense, more extreme measures should apply. .
Maryland’s texting law is considered “primary” law. A primary law means that an officer can pull you over for the offense without having to witness some other violation. That is, the officer sees you texting and issues a citation. Maryland’s cell phone laws are secondary laws. A secondary law refers to the fact that an officer can only pull you over and issue a ticket if the officer has witnessed some other violation – for example, you ran a stop light while using a handheld cell phone.
Fines for violating Maryland’s cell phone laws range from $40 to $100.
I was crossing Franklin Street, the parking lot entrance for MacGregors in Havre de Grace, while carrying my 3 year old son. As I was crossing, a car began turning to go onto Franklin; coming right towards me, I realized that the driver was not slowing down and didn’t see me. I darted out of the crosswalk and as she passed, the driver was looking at me with a shocked look on her face, and a cellphone in her hand. Had I not seen her and reacted, she would have run over both of us.
Operations like these may well save lives, and the results show just what an epidemic distracted driving is. If you are driving while using a cell phone, you may easily kill or severely injure someone. I have no problem whatsoever with police enforcing laws that protect innocent people from those who are negligent.
The lives they save may be yours, your children’s, or someone else who you love.
Because I know everyone here commenting in the negative has their Law Degree from the University of Facebook, with a minor in Google…here are some thoughts. Call it “common sense”, call it trolling, call me names…whatever, this is the internet, there are no feelings here.
1. There have been numerous stories posted by The Dagger over the past year regarding major traffic accidents, many of which included the death of someone involved (driver, passenger). Unfortunately, a great many of those also involved the death of a non-involved party (pedestrian, driver of another vehicle, etc.) In the comments of those articles, numerous people were posting “the police need to do more”. “The Troopers need to do their job”, “police need to stop pulling people over in my neighborhood and be on the highways”.
Yet, in this instance, when they are indeed “doing their job”, the masses of uninformed civilians bitches and gripes for them to “to their REAL job”, “stop praying on the innocent”.
Well, if that is the case…think of it this way. Of the 172 drivers stopped:
113 citations – That is a possible 113 accidents avoided by making people aware of the law. 113 people that “may” think twice before checking their phones while driving, and putting other drivers on the road at risk from their actions.
111 warnings – Another 111 possible accidents avoided. Another 111 drivers that will think twice before driving while texting.
4 commercial vehicles inspected with 1 driver and 1 vehicle being placed out of service – Is this not a good thing? A commercial vehicle with faulty equipment pulled off the road? A driver who couldn’t follow the rules out of commission for a while? I see it as a safety measure, but hey…they weren’t doing their “job”.
To top that off, they have announced additional enforcement efforts like this in the future! What does that mean? Well, anyone who reads this article will now have that in the back of their head when they go to reach for that phone while driving…because if they were using MDOT Dump Trucks this time…what’s to say they won’t use different vehicles next time?
For those who bitch and complain that “the cops are always on their phones”…if you went back and read your notes from Maryland Traffic Law that day, you would have known that Law Enforcement are exempt from the law (when on duty, and driving an agency vehicle). Yes, they are exempt…which now, in turn, gives you something more to bitch about on The Dagger. If this topic hits you so deeply you feel the need to anonymously take jabs at people you know nothing about, then why not write your opinions to your elected officials?
For the gentleman who wrote, “I saw a Comcast guy texting the other day, I memorized their vehicles information, my location, time etc, got to work and called their safety line.” If you see something like that on commercial vehicles, CALL THAT NUMBER! It is usually a 3rd party that reports these incidents to the company. They do alert the driver to these “caught” infractions as well….Plus, it’s anonymous, so you all can continue your rants without fear of reprisal.
You also failed to mention that as a profession, police officers have the highest accident rates. You tube is littered with police officers running lights and causing collisions because they were distracted texting, talking on a hand held phone and my favorite is typing on a lap top. Just because the legislature exempts you from the rules of the road that everyone else must follow, does not mean that you are any safer than the rest of us. And yes, I will continue to blow my horn every time I see you typing on your lap top on 695 as you drift into my lane.
One more, forgot about this comment..
“How about the Maryland State Police focus their efforts on charging criminal illegal aliens.”
The Maryland State Police don’t normally target illegal aliens. There is, however, an entire Federal Agency dedicated to this effort: Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
They have a Tip Line, so feel free to call and report your suspected illegal alien activity to the Feds. They have nothing better to do than come pick up a stray illegal lawn worker, or laborer in Harford County. They don’t do things like drug eradication efforts on national borders, but if you are that concerned about the illegals running around Fallston or Forest Hill, then be inclined to call and report.
Maybe you’ll be ran over by an illegal alien with no insurance that are driving on our roads every single day. You’ll be changing your tune awful quick.
First, it should be “run over”, not “ran over”.
Second, because you used the singular “illegal alien”, it should be “is driving”, not “are driving”.
Third, it should be “awfully quick”, not “awful quick”.
Isn’t one of the rallying cries of people with your mindset “if you live in our country, you should learn to speak English”? Maybe you should learn to speak it, too.
It probably wouldn’t matter to me who ran me over, but there seems to be a much greater number of people getting run over by distracted drivers than illegal aliens. So specifically targeting illegal alien drivers over distracted ones probably wouldn’t really be addressing the issue of distracted drivers injuring and killing people. Aside of that, even if an illegal alien ran someone over, I doubt that being an illegal alien would be the cause of the accident; so again, targeting something that is not the cause of something you are trying to prevent really doesn’t make much sense.
So, while you’re taking English 101, take a course in logic as well. You’ll be amazed at how enlightening it is to be able to think clearly, and express yourself intelligently.
The grammar police are out patrolling the blogs again. Amazingly, it only took you 40 minutes to construct a diatribe that consisted of four paragraphs promoting illegal aliens.
What’s wrong, are you too lazy to do your own landscaping or are you so cheap that you will pay the least amount of money to anyone who isn’t a United States citizen to do your lawn work.
I can’t wait until your job gets outsourced.
Just because it took you forty minutes to read it doesn’t mean it took me forty to write it. With how challenged you are with the language and how nonsensical your statement was, it took three minutes, tops.
The only people who take issue with the policing of distracted drivers are the same as the ones who take issue with the grammar police: they both want to break rules and get away with it, and they feel threatened by the knowledge that there are people who are one step ahead of them. Put your phone down, and don’t fear the police. Learn to write intelligibly and you’ll have no worry of looking like the illegal immigrants that you loathe.
No worries about having my job outsourced. Go to college and get yourself an education in a high demand field like I did, and you will no longer be replaceable by an unskilled illegal immigrant laborer, even if he does speak English better than you.
Stfu.
Good comeback! Game, set, match.
Wow, you’re really scared of immigrants. The elite have won over your thoughts, redirecting your angst at the people who had nothing to do with American job losses instead of rich people who orchestrated to whole gutting of the middle class.
@What… For the record, I am no longer a Trooper, but here you go…
Okay, a course in reality. I find an illegal alien through investigation – because, I cannot just stop anyone on the street and ask for ID or I will be on the nightly news for profiling.
Subject is illegal. By himself. We follow protocol, run for Wants / Warrants: nothing comes back.
Notify ICE (Immigration, Customs Enforcement). Here is how the conversation goes:
“How many?”
“One.”
“Violent offender? Wanted for anything?”
“No.”
“Release. No resources available. Only call us if in groups of 10 or more, or subject is violent offender wanted by anyone.”
“Thanks.”
Sad reality, not enough Feds to clean them up.
~~~~~~~~~~~
As far as Police Officers having the highest accident rates? Completely incorrect.
Funny thing about YouTube, you can post whatever you want…without having 2 sides to a story. Not saying that there are some who can’t handle the responsibilities, but to say in general that police have higher accident rates than the general public is false. Because of today’s media sensationalism, you hear more about a Police-involved accident over an a55hole who ran off the road drunk.
Additionally, more than 50% of police-involved accidents are the results of another party hitting the officer’s patrol vehicle…but it is never really clearly reported that way, is it?
Cool, just trying to clear up rumors and personal opinion over fact. Facts, by the way, can be found on the NHTSA Web Site.
I wish there was a permanent task force established for distracted driving which could be patrolling the roads every day. I am sick and tired of almost being hit by idiots and then they look at me like I’m the crazy one.
I always would love to see more “traffic” at 4/5am in the morning in Harford.
I get passed on double yellow/shoulder almost once a week.
Sometimes people “road rage” to include turning on their high beams and getting 10′ or less behind my rear bumper.
I drive the speed limit, and am cautious in the morning for animals, etc.
If the day comes when someone acts like an asshole, passes me and crashes their car, I’m not going to stop, help or call 911.
You should, out of kindness, honk and wave as you drive by! LOL
This guy would fly up behind me once a week and start flashing his high beams, then just leave them on.
You know, he would edge his driver side tire over the double yellow to “look ahead” and make sure the “coast was clear” before he passed me.
One time he passed me, I was rolling up behind him to stop at the red light he was sitting at and he just floored it. I guess all that effort to high beam me and pass me he didn’t want to waste if I came up behind him.
30mph road.
Funny thing is I’m driving a tall pickup and the high beams from his shitbox car doesn’t do much to “blind me.” I could only tell they were on because I saw the increase of light from mirrors and shadows.
The world is full of Bernie Sanders voters…sadly.
Guess he was in a hurry to turn over his income the poor.
AppliedTactical likes Trump because he can finally get a dental plan.
Dood….. get a tooth brush.
Anyone who votes is sad because our votes don’t count and democracy is a failure.
It’s a shame the State police do this on the highways but Gahler couldn’t be bothered on the thousands of miles of Harford county roads. Also the fact no one bothers to stop for a right turn is also a clear sign he just doesn’t care about the safety of Harford county drivers.
“Hello” I just openly laughed reading your post. You truly have no idea what your talking about. Two of Sheriff Gahlers biggest priorities are keeping our roads safe and attacking this Heroin epidemic! Traffic enforcement has increased dramatically since he took the reigns and he also runs a traffic task force that targets issues like distracted driving on a weekly basis! These are well known facts! Then I read your post, nice try, our Sheriff’s Office is top notch and so is our Sheriff.
Gahlers priority is to keep the roads safe? Seriously? I’m a delivery driver in Harford county and can honestly say I rarely ever see a sheriff with a car pulled over but can’t go 2 miles without seeing a distracted driver that in a split second is willing to take another drivers life because of some moronic text.
Did I just read, “the fact no one bothers to stop for a right turn is also a clear sign he just doesn’t care about the safety of Harford county drivers.”
I cannot possibly offer a response to that, most idiotic, stupid statement.
Because “no one” stops for a right turn…the Sheriff doesn’t care?
BWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA
Another Sanders Supporter.
AppliedTactical knows what he is talking about said no one ever.
That is kinda funny because AppliedTactical does come across as a Trump douche bag
Well another good day for the revenue collectors. I travel all over the country every week for my job. I drive thousands of miles a “month”. I have a clean driving record.
I find there is definitely a correlation between the states that do this non sense and the ones that don’t. The ones that do tend to be liberal free spending states that need the revenue. In some states, I can literally drive for hours and hours never see an officer doing any of this revenue enhancement. But I also find that in the states that don’t do revenue enhancement, they have much lower crime than in the free shooting, murder capital of the world Maryland.
I am more concerned about getting shot in this states than some businessman driving 80 on Interstate 95. Go look at the original drawings for I-95 some time. It has a design safe speed of 90. Who would have thought? Probably explains why they won’t raise the speed to 70 mph, cuts down on the revenue.
Don’t give them the opprtunity to collect this revenue. Obey the laws.
Don’t forget to pump the brakes to 40mph before you crest the hill on Route 22 and have a clear line of sight to Baker Cemetary right before Aberdeen city limits on a nice day. They love that spot to check speed.
In fact, I have people tell me they drive FASTER everywhere when it’s raining because Police aren’t running “traffic.”
Harford County drivers are horrible
Being a trash service employee County is just as risky as being law enforcement. I watched as a crew got info a cab of the truck at the last stop, the truck proceeeds to starting from being stopped, picking up trash and an asshole driver proceeds to pass the garbage truck as it’s MOVING on double yellow with incoming cars.
Well, I guess it’s about time they did something useful on 95 because most of the time, they’re sitting 2 at a time chit chatting with each other. God forbid, they sit by themselves to monitor speeders..
Jerry, thank you. You say more with three words then these educated pricks say with paragraphs. When I was a child I spoke and thought as a child. Now as a man, I know the truth!
Just another example of how all this cat and mouse games kills. Someday the legislature will apply the same driving rules to the police that the regular guy has to follow. Its getting really out of hand how many people are dying on the roads because of the inattentiveness of the police. Maybe they should keep two hands on the wheel too.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-highway-patrol-police-officer-crash-car-highway-killing-teen/
good idea we have done this for years also using unmarked vehicles for radar also
But you must remember that LEOs take that special course on how to drive safely while distracted. (This is only an assumption, but it must be true since it would be unthinkable for the police to tell us how often distracted driving injures and kills, and then to do the exact thing themselves.)
If it’s unsafe for non-police drivers to use a phone but OK for the police, logic would say that the same applies for drunk driving. It’s too bad that laws aren’t based on logic.
Watch the attitude of this distracted police officer holding up traffic while he is talking on the cell phone. The web is littered with thousands of these stories.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/motorcyclist-records-road-rage-encounter-164017912.html