Distracted driving kills.

“Distracted driving is anything that takes your hands off the wheel, your eyes off the road, or mind of driving,” said Kim Smith, safety press officer with the state Department of Transportation (PennDOT) District 3 in Montoursville.

“We all know that cell phones are a big distraction behind the wheel,” she said.

This year, in June, the Paul Miller Law takes effect. “The law makes it illegal to be holding your phone or mobile device while you’re driving, for any reason,” she said.

In the past the state has had texting and driving laws, but this will be for anything.

“You can’t make a phone call, you can’t be looking at your GPS on your phone, certainly not texting or using social media,” she said.

“Police will be able to pull you over if you have a phone in your hand when you are behind the wheel,” Smith warned.

“Something you should be practicing now is getting that phone, putting it away,” she said. “If it is something that you find hard to resist when you hear the ding, turn the phone off, put it in your glovebox or put it in your trunk so that you don’t have that temptation.”

April also is National Distracted Awareness Month, a time when PennDOT goes out and really tries to push the message that distracted driving is dangerous, and, parts of it are illegal. It is a topic that is covered all year long but this month is dedicated to pushing that safety message out there.

Construction zones and

speed enforcement

“Work zones are popping up already,” Smith said.

As the weather gets warmer, drivers will see a lot more, especially when the asphalt plants open, and a lot of projects get underway, usually this month.

“We do have National Distracted Driver Awareness Week and we also have National Work Zone Safety Week,” she said. “Those kind of go hand-in-hand because our workers out there are seeing a lot of distracted drivers going through the work zones,” she said.

“We want to stress that you take your time when you are going through a work zone,” she said. “Be patient, make sure your headlights are on … not only is it the law in active work zones but it just helps other drivers and the workers to see you and to see you coming.”

“Increase your following distance. When you are traveling through a work zone, you never know what is going to happen and the extra following distance allows you to react a little bit and have more time to react to things that might come up.”

Work zone safety is really about everybody.

“We obviously know it is about protecting our roadside workers but more often than not it is the people in the passenger cars that are getting injured in a work zone crash,” Smith said. “They might be hitting another vehicle, they might be hitting the concrete Jersey barriers, they might be hitting a large piece of equipment.”

The New Driver Work Zone Safety Program is a free, virtual program that anybody can take.

Anybody is eligible to take this free, virtual course, which is especially geared toward new drivers to help them understand the components of a work zone and give them the information that they need to safely navigate through that work zone. It is about 35 minutes long.

“There are some videos, quizzes to test your knowledge and see where you are at and a real life scenario. It teaches you about work zone law, about what the signs look like, how to properly merge, what a zipper merge is, when to use a zipper merge, and basic information about work zones so that as you approach them you understand them a little bit more and it just gives you that confidence that you are to be prepared to navigate that safely,” Smith said. “Your best defense in any crash is to make sure you are buckled up, with seat belts properly fastened – whether in the front seat or passenger seat or back seat – or if there are children in booster or child safety seats.”

Always drive the posted speed limit in work zones and out of work zones. “That speed limit is set for ideal conditions, so if it is a rainy day or it’s in dark hours, lower your speed accordingly,” she said.

“When approaching a work zone use your patience. If you have to use your four-way flashers as a warning to other traffic that you are going slowly please do that. Keep your headlights on and allow that room for the unexpected to happen.”

The PennDOT website has traffic safety information by topic including on work zones. It can be found at www.penndot.pa.gov .

Speed safety cameras have been in work zones in Pennsylvania for about five years when combining the pilot program and that program running.