Illinois: You might be distracted, but deputies won't be 7 drivers caught during traffic check between Sterling and Dixon

As the sun rises early Monday on state Route 2 between Dixon and Sterling, Lee County Sheriff’s Deputy Cpl. Jared Yater is in the back of a moving silver van, tracking passing vehicles with a handheld camcorder. He calls out a suspicious car to his boss in the driver’s seat.

“What is she doing?” Sheriff John Simonton says, who trails the car and adjusts his speed to get a closer look.

“Balancing a checkbook,” Yater quips.

A team of sheriff’s department personnel set out from 7 to 9 a.m. Monday to catch drivers in the act of distracted driving – texting or not using a hands-free device – which has been illegal for 2 years; violations start at $75, plus court costs.

In the 2 hours, seven drivers were ticketed, two more than were nabbed in a similar operation in October.

One of the tickets was issued for violating Scott’s Law, which mandates drivers move over for emergency vehicles. It seems a woman let her husband know about the deputies’ presence on the roadway Monday, Simonton said, and he drove to the traffic enforcement zone to shoot cellphone video of a traffic stop – while still in his vehicle in the lane nearest the officer.

Teams of unmarked squad cars stationed themselves at intervals between Dixon and Sterling, while spotter vans zipped up and down the eastbound and westbound lanes.

Calls were radioed to other units to make a stop.

Front-seat passengers in approaching cars often could be seen mouthing the word “cop” to their drivers; some people smiled. Others looked straight ahead, or in the opposite direction, running their hands through their hair, as if to stretch.

Simonton’s head swiveled as he talked about the dangers of distracted driving and called out cars at the same time.

Drivers in their 20s make up 27 percent of fatal crashes involving distracted drivers, according to distraction.gov, a government website.

There are no fancy tools, or dongles measuring radio frequencies, to catch texters. Law enforcers must rely on instincts for being in the right place at the right time, and on good eyesight for visual confirmation. A camcorder records violations.

“When [drivers] look down, they’re not necessarily on their phone, ... but it is a clue,” Yater said.

One driver Monday was on a cellphone for so long that Yater estimated the car traveled the length of a city block with the driver effectively blindfolded.

“She had the phone up on the steering wheel and was texting on it,” he said. “She wasn’t even looking up at the road.”

Some drivers appeared to be texting, but when the surveillance van pulled closer, they were smoking, vaping, drinking water, fiddling with the radio, and, yes, balancing a checkbook.

The sheriff, who is a retired Illinois State Police lieutenant with more than 30 years experience, recalled a driver with her curling iron plugged in, doing her hair in the middle of Chicago rush-hour traffic.

Distracted driving has risen, slowly becoming a top factor in property damage and fatal accidents, the Lee County department has said. It “will continue to conduct these types of enforcement details throughout the county.”