Columbus Police conduct second distracted driving sting along Macon Road

Tuesday morning Columbus Police Department was conducting a second distracted driving sting, this one along Macon Road in front of the public library.

The undercover operation started about 7 a.m., Lt. Clyde Dent said. Just as they did on June 1 on Bradley Park Drive, officers posed as a work crew that was tasked with identifying violations. It was wrapping up shortly after 9 a.m.

More than a dozen officers were working the detail, but there was no total on the number of tickets that were issued. In June, officers issued nearly 100 citations, most for distracted driving in a two-hour period.

The operation is part of a Columbus police crackdown on distracted driving.

“We are being much more specific this time,” Dent said.

The undercover officers were looking for people manipulating their cell phones then they would then radio information to motorcycle officers who would make the traffic stop and issue the citation. They were describing what the driver was doing, which hand he or she was using and a description of the car to sometimes include the tag number.

Under Georgia law, it is not illegal to talk on a cell phone, but you can not text or email it while in control of a motor vehicle. That includes if you are stopped at a traffic signal.

Police waited until most of the tickets issued on June 1 had cleared court to do a second sting, Dent said. Last month, two Recorder’s Court judges found most of the people who appeared in their courts guilty of the distracted driving charge. The ticket comes with fines and court costs of more than $200.

The Macon Road area was selected because it is a high-traffic area, Dent said.

“It is a major east-west corridor and it is a very busy intersection,” Dent said.

This story was originally published August 15, 2017 at 9:39 AM with the headline "Columbus Police conduct second distracted driving sting along Macon Road."