Though multitasking is a way of life in the U.S., the federal government is taking aim at a form of it that’s causing thousands of collisions – distracted driving.
At the conclusion of a recent two-day summit on the issue in Washington, D.C., U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced a series of actions the Obama Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) are taking to help curb activity that keeps drivers’ eyes off the road, such as cell phone use.
A recent report from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute noted that people who text messaged while operating heavy vehicles or trucks were 23.2 times more likely to get into crashes or near-crash situations. According to Nationwide, driving while distracted is a factor in 25 percent of police-reported crashes. Research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that the worst offenders are the youngest drivers: people under 20 years of age.
LaHood said he would work with Congress to ensure that the issue of distracted driving is addressed.
The USDOT plans to create three separate rulemakings addressing distracted driving that would consider:
• Banning text-messaging while driving altogether and restricting the use of cell phones by truck and interstate bus operators.
• Making permanent restrictions on the use of cell phones and other electronic devices in rail operations.
• Disqualifying school bus drivers convicted of texting while driving from maintaining their commercial driver’s licenses.
Six states (California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Washington) already ban handheld cell phone use for all drivers, and 18 states ban text-messaging while driving.
On Sept. 29, Pres. Barack Obama signed an Executive Order directing federal employees not to engage in text messaging while driving government-owned vehicles, when using electronic equipment supplied by the government while driving, or while driving privately owned vehicles when they’re on official government business. The order also encourages federal contractors and others doing business with the government to adopt and enforce their own policies banning texting while driving on the job.
The two-day distracted driving summit brought together safety experts, researchers, industry representatives, elected officials and members of the public who shared their expertise, experiences and ideas for reducing distracted driving behavior and addressed the safety risk posed by this growing problem across all modes of transportation.
More information about distracted driving:
• Ray LaHood’s video blog and Webcast of summit available at www.dot.gov.
