Bellingham, we have a problem talking on the phone while driving, and here’s the proof

It’s official Bellingham — some of you have a serious problem.

You know who you are, and some of you now have a ticket courtesy of the Bellingham Police Department as proof.

Consider this your intervention.

According to a Facebook post Friday afternoon by the Bellingham Police’s Traffic Division, some people aren’t doing a good job following Washington state’s new distracted driving law.

Bellingham police are working a distracted driving emphasis during the month of August at the intersection of Lakeway Drive and Lincoln Street, and the numbers simply do not lie.

“Here are the numbers specifically from today (Friday),” the post read. “Four hours, 42 violations, 25 tickets issued (18 of which were cell phone violations).”

For those of you without a calculator, that’s a cell phone violation issued almost every 13 minutes.

Hope those calls were worth the $136 they’re going to cost — $234 if it was a second offense.

For the record, Lakeway and Lincoln aren’t the only place the Traffic Division is trying to break you of this dangerous habit. According to an Aug. 6 post, other areas of emphasis in August will be the City Center and along North State Street.

The areas for emphasis were decided in part by looking at July’s accident reports, according to the post.

This story was originally published August 10, 2018 at 5:12 PM.