If You’re Driving While Reading This, You’re Part of Why Chester County’s Distracted Driving Issue Is So Bad

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Distracted Driving in Chester County
Image via Creative Commons.

Chester County ranks among the 10 counties in Pennsylvania with the most distracted driving citations, according to a report from the Pennsylvania Judicial Center.

In-county distracted-driving citations show motorists behind the wheel using headphones, making cell calls, glancing at GPS directions, and, of course, texting.

Over the past five years, Chester County drivers have received a total of 1,151 citations for distracted driving offenses. These account for 5.82 percent of overall cases in Pennsylvania. The data put the county in the third-worse location statewide for citations related to inattentiveness in the driver’s seat.

There is, however, good news in the statistics. The number of tickets related to drivers’ wandering attention has dropped since a 2017 peak. This is especially true for 2020, when citation volumes were more than halved, from 216 in 2019 to 116.

Statewide demographics profile the offenders: Most are in their 20s (34 percent) and male (71 percent).

As for timing, May seems to be the worst month for wandering attention in the driver’s seat (11 percent).

And in terms of who’s catching us, the Pennsylvania State Police wrote just over half our tickets (56 percent).

Out of neighboring counties, Montgomery County has the highest number of distracted-driving citations in Pennsylvania, while Bucks County also made the Top 10 at No. 6.

Check out the graphic below and read the entire report from the Pennsylvania Judicial Center.

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