Minnesota's Hands-Free Driving Law Enforced With 5,426 Violations

UNDATED (WJON News) -- The Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety is announcing the results of a month-long distracted driving campaign.

Several law enforcement agencies across the state joined the extra enforcement campaign from April 1st through April 30th. Officers cited nearly 5,500 drivers for violating the hands-free law.

During the statewide campaign, 296 Minnesota law enforcement agencies reported a total of 5,426 violations during the month.

Some notable incidents included a St. Cloud driver who was stopped for typing on a laptop while also holding a phone in heavy traffic, an Elk River driver who was holding two phones while driving, and in Fillmore County, a semi driver was so distracted that they didn't notice a deputy trying to pull them over until they crossed into the next county.

In greater Minnesota, the Mankato Department of Public Safety had the highest number of citations with 383, followed by the Minnesota State Patrol in Virginia with 285, and the Minnesota State Patrol in St. Cloud in the third spot with 141 citations.

For the first time, law enforcement also held a one-day awareness campaign on April 20th to remind drivers that driving under the influence of cannabis remains illegal.

See the Must-Drive Roads in Every State

Gallery Credit: Sarah Jones

LOOK: Stunning vintage photos capture the beauty of America's national parks

Today these parks are located throughout the country in 25 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The land encompassing them was either purchased or donated, though much of it had been inhabited by native people for thousands of years before the founding of the United States. These areas are protected and revered as educational resources about the natural world, and as spaces for exploration.

Keep scrolling for 50 vintage photos that show the beauty of America's national parks.

Gallery Credit: Alexander Raeburn

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

Gallery Credit: Sophia Crisafulli

Filed Under: minnesota office of traffic safety