Police: Distracted driving a more frequent concern

“Cellphones are always topping the category of what we get the most citations for. Those are definitely the most frequent citations we get, probably by a large margin,” said Burlingame police Cpl. Daniel Thompson, Saturation Traffic Enforcement Program coordinator, who also serves as Burlingame’s traffic division corporal. “They’re one of the easier violations for us to stumble on.” 

STEP operations bring a greater number of officers to specific cities across the county on specific days, with a goal of enforcement and increasing traffic safety awareness. 

In San Bruno, where part of the recent saturation operation was held, violations for talking on the phone have fluctuated in the past five years, with 2024 and 2025 numbers both up from 2023. Citations for using a cellphone have steadily increased in that five-year timeframe.  

San Bruno police Sgt. Scott Smithmatungol attributed distracted driving trends to more sophisticated vehicle-to-phone technology, as well as individuals taking work calls while in the car. 

“Vehicle technology is increasing, where people are able to use Bluetooth to speak or talk. So we’re seeing a lot more now in terms of distracted driving, with texting and whatnot,” he said. “This is just personal opinion — we’re seeing the correlation as more people are going back into work, going back into the office more days a week, where a lot of the people we’re contacting are on Zoom calls or on Teams calls as they’re driving.” 

Drivers not stopping at stop signs is another common violation trend, Smithmatungol said. Failing to stop at a stop sign was the second most common violation during the saturation enforcement operations Jan. 13, with 57 drivers cited. 

“For us here in San Bruno, the stop signs here, people just generally take stop signs as suggestions, not really as a hard, fast law,” Smithmatungol said. 

To lower those citation numbers, police departments use a combination of education and enforcement, turning to the Office of Traffic Safety for grant funding when understaffing or budget issues create difficulties. 

Sometimes, getting a ticket is what it takes to deter distracted driving, speeding, running stop signs or other negative driving behaviors. Programs like STEP have been helpful for that purpose, San Bruno Police Chief Matt Lethin said. 

“It really allows us to work collaboratively, to really kind of infuse, as a force multiplier, just this infusion of traffic enforcement, in the different cities and towns in our county,” he said. 

Other times, learning about the life-threatening danger of distracted driving — either via social media or a public forum like a City Council meeting — can change behavior. 

“If you’re a driver looking at your cellphone, and you’re driving at a certain speed, even for that split second, even if it’s not a full second, you have now traveled so many feet without seeing the roadway and the potential for something to change unexpectedly and for you to have the sufficient reactionary time to react appropriately, it’s coming into question,” Lethin said. “So that’s a problem.”