How we counted distracted drivers in suburbs

The Daily Herald's survey of distracted drivers is a snapshot of motorist behavior at a given time.

From 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, 2014, 40 Daily Herald editors, photographers and reporters stood at 10 intersections in the suburbs to count drivers who were breaking the law regarding hand-held phones.

We chose busy intersections in Batavia, Elgin, Libertyville, Mundelein, Naperville, St. Charles, Schaumburg, South Elgin, Wheaton and Wheeling.

One observer was assigned to each leg of the intersection to look for drivers who were moving or stopped.

A high bar was set to ensure drivers were truly breaking the law. To eliminate guesswork, observers had to clearly see the driver was using a hand-held device or phone. If a driver was looking down and it appeared he or she was interacting with a device, those were not counted.