This anti-texting movement fails to address the core issue -- cell phone use.
As the debate about the national safety problem cause by distracted drivers using electronic devices heats up, the government agency responsible for traffic safety has come under attack for suppressing studies showing just how bad the problem is, and, worse, for bowing to Congressional pressure not to pursue regulations that would save lives.
In a joint press release, Public Citizen and the Center for Auto Safety said that since 2003, the government has known that drivers talking on their cell phones experience the same potentially deadly distraction whether they are using a handheld device or hands-free technology. The pressure groups made the accusations after a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act obtained internal documents from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
“By keeping this information secret from the public for the past six years, the government has endangered even more lives, the groups said. Cities and states across the country have passed laws and ordinances requiring drivers to use hands-free phones, mistakenly believing those devices to be safe and encouraging drivers to use them.”
The suppressed evidence and opinions by safety experts advising NHTSA have since been confirmed by numerous independent studies.
With more than 100 million people each day practicing dangerous distracted driving behavior, the fatalities and accidents causes are growing to proportions far greater than the few swine flu deaths that caused a public uproar. Particularly dangerous is the widespread use of cell phones. The issue is not the type of phone a driver uses, rather it is the distraction caused by the conversation itself. That’s the reason the National Safety Council urged a total ban on using cell phones while driving earlier this year after conducting further studies that confirmed previous research on just how dangerous they are.
NSC said cell phone use while driving contributes to 6% of crashes, or 636,000 wrecks, 330,000 injuries, 12,000 serious injuries, and 2,600 deaths each year. NSC estimates the annual financial toll of cell phone-related crashes at $43 billion. Simply put cell phone use is as dangerous as drunken driving.
Enter a bill by Senate Democrats that looks to me is as much about providing some political cover as it is about concern for human lives. The bill, sponsored by a group of Senate Democrats including Charles Schumer of New York came right after yet another study from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which showed commercial truck drivers who are texting to be 23 times more likely to be involved in a crash or a near miss.
The proposed legislation came justbefore the Senate was leaving town this week for its August recess. So nothing will happen in a hurry. If eventually enacted, it would require that Transportation Department regulators impose minimum penalties for states to implement against the offending drivers. States would have two years to enact their own laws.
At least thirteen states and the District of Columbia already have driver-texting bans in force or proposed. But this anti-texting movement fails to address the core issue – cell phone use. How the Senate and local governments can ignore the problem in the face of all the evidence is beyond me. Could it be that constituents are too wedded to dangerous cell phone use for politicians to consider taking on what is clearly a growing problem?
“People died in crashes because the government withheld this information,” said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety. “States passed laws and took action to restrict only handheld cell phone use assuming hands-free cell phones use was safe. The studies NHTSA concealed showed that all cell phone use is as hazardous as drinking and driving.”
The Center for Auto Safety is now petitioning NHTSA to restrict the availability of two-way communication features through in-vehicle systems while the vehicle is in motion, relying in part on information revealed in the released records as a basis for the petition. The Center also is asking NHTSA to support state programs designed to limit use of cell phones – whether hands-free or handheld – by drivers.
If the Senate is so concerned about safety, it should pass a cell-phone ban that NHTSA can enforce.