Police conduct undercover distracted driving crackdown in Salt Lake and Utah counties

SALT LAKE CITY — People who text and drive, beware; police in Salt Lake and Utah counties are looking for you. It's part of an undercover crackdown happening now on distracted drivers. KSL went out with officers doing the blitz.

"Alright, right there, she's definitely manipulating the phone texting," said a state trooper with the Utah Highway Patrol.

Between now and April 20, you may see a lot of drivers getting pulled over and possibly ticketed for distracted driving. Scores of officers from 42 police agencies in Salt Lake and Utah counties, including the Utah Highway Patrol, are out looking for drivers doing anything from texting, eating or brushing their teeth behind the wheel as part of National Distracted Driving Awareness Month.

According to the Utah Department of Public Safety, 38% of Utah drivers admit to driving distracted at least once a week. In 2024, at least 23 people died in distracted driving-related crashes. Police want to turn some of those numbers around because they know it's a bigger problem than what's being reported.

"Most people aren't going to be forthright and say 'Hey, listen, I was doing something else besides driving, I was distracted,'" said Capt. Wade Breur, with UHP.

State safety experts shared with KSL the top five reasons drivers admit they get distracted:

1. 20.75%, other (inside the vehicle)
2. 19.41%, cellphone use
3. 18.62%, other (outside the vehicle)
4. 6%, passengers
5. 3.89%, audio

To combat it, the Utah Department of Public Safety is putting out a new ad showing the dangers of distracted driving, and police will be out in force.

Officers in unmarked cars will be out looking for each of those distracted driving factors between Monday and April 20. They'll record it and then have a uniformed officer pull drivers over. If you get caught, you could get a ticket for careless driving, which will cost you $100 for the first offense.

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