WESTPORT — Texting. Dining. Grooming.

Don’t do it when driving, ever. But especially not during April when local police have joined a month-long crackdown on distracted driving.

The “National Distracted Driving Awareness Month” campaign, promoted statewide April 1-31 by the Connecticut Department of Transportation, involves “high-visibility enforcement” against all forms of distracted driving, according to a statement from Westport police.

The “U Drive. U Text. U Pay.” enforcement action recognizes that texting is the greatest source of distracted driving.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, at any time nationwide approximately 660,000 drivers are using or manipulating electronic devices while driving.

In 2020, the last year of available national data, more than 3,100 people died in crashes involving distracted drivers, according to NHTSA. About 8 percent of all fatal crashes in 2020 involved a distracted driver, the agency said.

In Connecticut in 2022, there were nearly 5,200 motor vehicle accidents attributed to distracted driving.

Connecticut law prohibits the use of any hand-held mobile electronic device while operating a motor vehicle. 

Drivers 16 or 17 years old are prohibited from using a cellphone or mobile device at any time, even with a hands-free accessory. 

Violators of the law are fined $200 for the first offense, $375 for the second and $625 for the third and subsequent offenses.