Lexington PD urging drivers to put down cell phones, responding to 100+ collisions per month

Lexington Police are asking drivers to be cautious and pay attention on the roads, as more than 100 collisions are reported each month.

Town of Lexington, S.C. (WOLO) — Lexington Police are asking drivers to be cautious and pay attention on the roads, as more than 100 collisions are reported each month.

“Last month we had 122 collisions. In recent months we’ve had as many as 170 collisions. So the 12-month average is about 135 collisions,” said Cpl. Cameron Mortenson of the Lexington Police Department.

Thousands of drivers pass through the Town of Lexington each day. Police say this daily traffic flow contributes to a high number of incidents.

“For a community that’s roughly around 30,000 people, we see upwards and over 100,000 vehicles a day,” said Mortenson.

In the busy commute times like the morning and rush hour, police say some of those drivers are not paying attention behind the wheel.

“When a collision happens on a major thoroughfare, such as US 1, US 378 or SC 6, it really causes an issue for people either trying to get to work or coming home from work,” said Mortenson.

He added that some factors for these crashes include running a red light, speeding, or failure to yield a right of way.  But he said the most common factor is distracted driving; more specifically, drivers using their cell phones.

“Drivers just aren’t alert. There’s too much traffic for drivers not to keep their eyes on the road the entire time they’re behind the wheel,” said Mortenson.

Officers are urging people to pay attention and follow the rules of the road, and have patience while stopped at a light. The biggest thing police are asking drivers to do: put down your cell phone.

“The couple things that we find is that drivers are impatient, and anytime that they run red lights or they try to cut through parking lots to– in their mind, think that they’re getting around an intersection quicker–it actually works against the entire system as a whole,” said Mortenson. “If everybody made that commitment to not touch their cell phone until they got to the office, if they were working hands-free, I think we’d see those collision numbers go down pretty quick.”

Mortenson said some of the worst intersections for crashes are West Main Street and Columbia Ave, Sunset Boulevard and Hope Ferry Road, and Sunset Boulevard and Mineral Springs Road.