‘Put your phone down and drive’ campaign to be intensified — police

AMMAN — Traffic police on Sunday said they will intensify their campaign against the use of mobile phones by motorists.

The announcement comes almost a month following a nation-wide campaign launched by the Traffic Department targeting motorists using their mobiles after police noticed an increase in the use of mobiles by drivers, a senior traffic officer said.

“The Traffic Department was fining motorists in the past but we felt that they were still not respecting the law, so we decided to increase our surveillance and fines since the first announcement of our campaign last month,” a senior traffic official told The Jordan Times on Sunday,

In 2008, new provisions were introduced to the Traffic Law entailing a JD15 fine for motorists seen using holding their mobiles in their hand to make a call or use its applications.

“We will continue targeting violators because we have noticed a decrease in road accidents in comparison to last year when we launched our campaign last month,” the traffic officer added.

Traffic officers in Jordan have said that international figures indicated that the use of mobiles while driving proved to be one of the main reasons for fatal traffic accidents, “which is similar to Jordan’s case since many of the accidents were the result of motorists’ being distracted while using the mobiles which resulted in several accidents as a result to failure to exert full safety precautions while driving, not abiding by traffic safety regulations and sudden changes in traffic lanes”.

Traffic officers issued an average of around 7,000 tickets every day when the campaign started in mid-July.

During a recent meeting with police and traffic officers in the capital, Public Security Department (PSD) Director Maj. Gen. Fadel Hmoud called for “conducting special security campaigns to combat certain negative phenomena in the society such as firing live ammunition in the air and to increase the monitoring of dangerous traffic violations that are considered dangerous to motorists and pedestrians”.

The PSD issued a statement urging motorists to abide by the Traffic Laws and to refrain from using the mobile while driving to avoid committing dangerous violations.  

“We urge people to respect the law and to help the PSD spread the culture of safe driving by staying away from committing dangerous traffic violations, including the use of mobile phones,” the PSD statement said.

The Royal Automobile Club of Jordan (RACJ), which took part in recent global campaigns to promote awareness among drivers, pedestrians and cyclist on the dangers of phone use while driving, noted that drivers are four times more likely to crash while being on the phone, adding that accidents due to road user distraction by mobile phones are “on the rise”. 

For drivers, pedestrians and cyclists only a few seconds of distraction can mean the difference between life and death, the RACJ said.