EL MONTE >> El Monte police cited 179 driver in April during their crackdown on distracted driving, officials said.
The vast majority of tickets written during the month-long enforcement campaign were for using a cell phone while driving, El Monte police Sergeant Jimmie Pitts said.
Police patrolled in cars, on motorcycles and on foot to seek out distracted drivers, he said.
In addition to using a phone, other common exampled of distracted driving include reading or applying cosmetics, officials said.
“It is recommended that if a call, text or other task is critical, then a driver should pull over to the side of the road and complete the task,” he said.
The number of tickets was up compared with a similar crackdown last year, in which officers issued about 140 citations.
Funding for the bulk of April’s distracted driving crackdown was provided by a grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, through the California Office of Traffic Safety.