CLIVE, Iowa — Texting while driving is illegal in Iowa, and police in a Des Moines suburb showed they were serious about it during a Friday crackdown, KCCI reported.
Police in Clive, a town of 15,000 people located west of Des Moines, said they stopped 73 drivers and issued 28 citations at $100 a pop for distracted driving in less than five hours, the television station reported.
"What people don't know is even if you're stopped at a light, you still can't be on your phone unless you're talking on it or using GPS," Clark told KCCI. "It's a traffic violation."
Clive police Officer DeVante Clark said he spent the day searching for drivers who were looking at their phones instead of the road.
Texting while stopped at a traffic signal is also grounds for a citation, Clark said. Clive police Officer Adam Jones said being distracted for even a second could yield fatal results.
"When you're traveling 55 mph, if you look down at your phone, even for just a few seconds, you traveled the distance of a football field," Jones told KCCI. "So, if you figure that out, I mean, it's a huge factor. It's very dangerous."