• 23
  • September
    2010

Transportation Department officials held a summit on distracted driving this past Tuesday. The central theme of the summit was to raise awareness and to create a coordinated system of guidelines to keep the country's roadways safe from technology driven car and truck accidents.

Over the past year, almost 5,500 people have died from car accidents involving drivers distracted by technology. As it now stands, 38 states and the District of Columbia do not allow drivers to text while driving. Eight states have outlawed handheld cell phone use behind the wheel. A nationwide law that would prohibit texting while driving is set to come before Congress.

Regulations for commercial driving are presently not even-handed. Surprisingly, truck drivers that haul hazardous materials are currently allowed to text while driving. Right now, hazardous material haulers are not covered by rules that prevent commercial bus and truck drivers from texting from behind the wheel. The Transportation Department proposed a change in the law to prevent hazardous haulers from texting. The Federal government and almost 1,600 United States companies have policies to prevent employees from using mobile phones when driving is a part of the job.

In another effort to coordinate safety measures, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood proposed a meeting between his department and automakers in order to create better safety guidelines for in-vehicle technology. Vehicle entertainment and communication features such as voice recognition components that allow drivers to surf the internet orally have been deemed a "cognitive distraction" by the Department. The car industry believes that voice systems are safer than handheld phone use. 

In order to raise awareness of the safety issue advocates have proposed safety campaigns similar to drunken driving and seatbelt campaigns to build public education on distracted driving. Inspired by cigarette warnings, Secretary Ray LaHood proposed putting warning labels on cell phone boxes that would remind consumers not to drive and use their device.

Source: Denverpost.com, "Summit Calls For Reduction in Distracted Driving," Ken Thomas, 9/21/10