OCEAN CITY — Starting this weekend, the Ocean City Police Department is joining a nationwide law enforcement initiative to crack down on the growing epidemic of texting while driving.

From Friday through next Wednesday, the OCPD will be stepping up enforcement on texting and driving utilizing a combination of traditional and innovative strategies. The national “U Drive-U Text-U Pay” high visibility enforcement campaign has two goals including conducting strict enforcement of anti-texting laws and coupling that effort with an aggressive advertising and social media outreach campaign to let drivers know about the dangers of texting while driving.

“Driving and texting is not only dangerous and irresponsible, it’s illegal and can be very costly to violators,” said OCPD Chief Ross Buzzuro. “When you text while driving, you take your eyes off the road, hands off the wheel and mind off the task of driving, which puts yourself and others at risk.”

While texting has become increasingly popular in recent years, there has been more information available connecting text messaging to highway crashes.

According to one recent study, 49 percent of drivers under age 35 have admitted to texting while driving. Not surprisingly, the percentages go up as the age of the drivers goes down. For example, 66 percent of 18-24-year-olds admitted texting while driving.

In 2014, nearly 3,200 people were killed and another 431,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers. Yet another study indicates texting while driving can have a similar effect on reaction time as driving impaired with a blood-alcohol content of .16, or twice the legal limit for drinking and driving.