MURRAY — A big, black van with stickers reading "Stop the texts. Stop the wrecks." on its sides and rear traveled south on I-15 Thursday afternoon.
Inside, three Utah Highway Patrol troopers carefully watched motorists zoom past them.
"Right there," the trooper driving the van called out suddenly. "There's one."
The other troopers in the van peered out the window.
"Is he just on the phone or texting?" one asked.
A moment of intense staring passes as the troopers watch, and then …
"Oh, yep. See? He's working on it."
"Yeah, this little red car, he's got his right hand down by the steering wheel."
The driver discreetly taps his phone, head bobbing as he glances quickly from the road to his hands.
"Now that particular individual would be a good one to talk to," UHP Lt. Corey Nye said as he watched the driver. "We'll have the officer talk to him about the phone, and talk to him about manipulation."
Several UHP troopers patrolled the freeway for a few hours Thursday, specifically looking for texting drivers. The agency started using a 15-passenger van to help patrols spot distracted drivers on Utah highways.
"Distracted driving includes anything that takes your attention away from the road," Lt. Beau Mason said. "The van really gives us an opportunity to see into the cars from an elevated position, to see what the people are doing."
Patrol cars travel ahead and wait for the spotter van to call out vehicles with drivers on their phones. When given the cue, troopers pull over drivers spotted by those in the van.
"Our behavior changes when we see a police officer or a marked car," Nye said. "So (the van) allows us to catch that behavior we're trying to prevent prior to them seeing a marked car."
Technically, talking on a cellphone or using a GPS app aren't against Utah laws.
But drivers can't "write, send or read a written communication — including a text message, an instant message or electronic mail — dial a phone number, access the internet, view or record video or enter data into" a handheld device, according to state law.
Trooper Eric Davies said watching driving patterns is great way to spot distracted drivers.
"It's not as difficult as you think," Davies said. "They start favoring one side of the road or the other. You pull up next to them, and a lot of them are distracted and sucked into their phone. So they don't see you pull up next to them."
The two biggest causes of distracted driving crashes in Utah are cellphones and passengers, according to Zero Fatalities.
Last year, distracted driving caused 22 fatalities, Zero Fatalities reported. But the total number of distracted drivers on the roads is unknown, officials said.
"We all know, driving down the road every day, you can see people on their phones, distracted, as they're driving," Mason said. "So we know it's a bigger problem than the numbers we have to go along with that."
The spotter van was taken for a test run last month. Officials are still collecting data to determine whether the van is an effective tool to combat distracted driving.
"We would like to see this ongoing," Mason said. "However, right now, we're just getting into the process of developing the best means on how to do it safely for everybody."
If the van is approved for frequent patrols, officers will use it in Utah, Davis and Salt Lake counties.
And from high up in the spotter van, troopers have no problem seeing which drivers are distracted, taking pictures and videos for proof.
"That gentleman right there, he has it," Nye called out, watching another driver tapping at his phone.
Troopers walked up to the pulled over car, showing the driver a photo taken a few seconds earlier. He had been texting with both hands off the wheel.
"Our primary focus is to change the behavior," Mason said. "If we can educate them as we do this and tell them of the dangers, that's what our troopers try to do."