Senate getting the message: texting is a perfect storm of driver distraction

Yesterday, I reminded the Senate Commerce Committee of two things readers of this blog have heard from me repeatedly:

Transportation safety is the Department’s highest priority.  And distracted driving is a serious and ongoing threat to safety.

Now, this trend distresses me deeply, and I am personally committed to reducing the number of injuries and fatalities caused by distracted driving.

I am pleased to see the Senate considering legislation to help reduce texting and other distractions while driving.

But I also know that legislation will not be enough. Education and awareness--including targeted outreach campaigns--must be part of the mix.

Here's a start: Experts agree that there are three types of distraction--

1. Visual – taking your eyes off the road;
2. Manual – taking your hands off the wheel; and
3. Cognitive – taking your mind off the road. 

While all distractions can adversely impact safety, texting is particularly troubling because it involves all three types of distraction. In the words of Dr. John Lee of the University of Wisconsin, this produces a “perfect storm.”

Not convinced? Our latest research shows that nearly 6,000 people died last year in crashes involving a distracted driver, and more than half a million people were injured.

 

At our Distracted Driving Summit, we heard from several victims of this behavior whose lives have been changed forever.  Mothers and fathers who lost children, and children who lost a parent, told us their stories.

And I want you to know I promised these families that I would make this issue my cause. And I will.

Comments

[Adam Parast]

I'm sure everyone has talked on the phone or possibly even texted while driving. Hopefully you don't do it again but if you do, after you hang up the phone or finish the text message try to remember where you just drove and what you past. I'm sure it will just be a blur if that.

When I realized this is scared me so much that I stopped doing everything with my phone while I drive and made everyone in my family do the same.

[Michael E. Bailey]

I am really glad that the Senate is taking this up with the possibility of legislation. I hope your meeting with the House Committee will generate similar action there and that if legislation passes the President can sign it. That will be very important an important signal to the states, to county government, and to school district boards of education. I think one thing OCTA is effective in now is preventing bus drivers from using the cell phone while driving the bus. They have a policy against doing this and now it is easy to catch offenders because the buses are all equipped with cameras that will show what the drivers as well as passengers are doing. And now you never see an OCTA driver trying to drive and use a cell phone at the same time. The cameras are in the ACCESS buses too and so you never see an ACCESS driver on a cell phone and trying to drive at the same time. Public education is important both to the public in general and to groups in the public like teenagers, bus drivers, truck drivers, heavy equipment operators, and airlines air crews, and railroad train crews. Just on September 27, 2009 there was an accident at a copper mine where the driver of a 240 ton dump truck left the mine road drove up a berm until the truck overturned back on to the road, and fell out of the cab and was killed because he was not wearing a seatbelt. This has all the hallmarks of someone trying to drive and operate a cell phone at the same time. I do think you need to make a strong effort to get the word out to mine equipment operators about the need to use seatbelts when the equipment is moving because the above accident was one of three reports that came in this week of drivers killed because they were not wearing seatbelts and were throwed from the truck cabs. One of these was another large dump truck that backed to far and went over the edge of a mine dump while the third was a cargo truck driver on the mine road with a load of ore for the smelter that failed to make a turn and was throwed from the cab. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.

[Louie Colón]

I applaud President Obama's executive order banning federal employees from texting while driving. Perhaps, following President Obama's lead, the USDOT would consider taking it one step further and not support the addition of Facebook and Twitter on USDOT sites; after all, the aforementioned have become the two most popular "texting by other means" cell phone applications among those we wish to protect: our at-risk group while driving.

[Bob Thompson]

As one of past accident victims, I hope this time the law is passed to stop (and with severe punishment equal to that thrust upon innocent victims) these crash criminals. I will forever live with injuries while my purpetrator continues scott free. Justice must prevail and they need to be held totally accountable NOT just a few hundred dollars fine!.
Voice of Vehicular Victims

[Grace G]

Texting and using phones or iPods while driving has become a major problem in our society. I think it is great that Secretary LaHood is taking on distracted driving as Secretary of Transportation because it is such a growing issue. I know so many people who text and drive and it is so unsafe. It's not a matter of if something will happen to these people, it is a matter of when they will get in an accident. Hopefully the Secretary can work with Congress to pass legislation regarding distracted driving. Such legislation could end up saving so many lives, especially innocent ones.

[Dentist Hayward]

Driving while texting is a very dangerous thing to do. And drivers must know this, its not that they are only thinking of their lives but they must think of others to who will be involved in the accidents.