Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- With more drivers yakking on their cellphones or texting from behind the wheel, the Obama administration is taking its first hard look at highway hazards with an eye toward potential new restrictions on using mobile devices while driving.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is kicking off a two-day summit today involving researchers, automakers, safety advocates and lawmakers to find ways of preventing distracted driving from leading to widespread deaths and injuries. LaHood said he plans to make recommendations Thursday on ways federal and state governments, as well as safety groups can address the distractions, pointing to previous approaches for drunken driving and seat belts.
Ultimately, LaHood said, he wants the summit to set "the stage for finding ways to eliminate texting while driving."
"You see people texting and driving and using cell phones and driving everywhere you go, even in places where it's outlawed like Washington, D.C. We feel a very strong obligation to point to incidents where people have been killed or where serious injury has occurred," LaHood said.
Eighteen states, including North Carolina (effective Dec. 1), and the District of Columbia have passed laws making texting while driving illegal and seven states and the district have banned driving while talking on a handheld cell phone, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Many safety groups have urged a nationwide ban on texting and on using handheld mobile devices while behind the wheel.
"People who wouldn't get drunk and drive somehow think it's OK to text and drive -- which is just as dangerous," said Kristin Backstrom, a senior manager with the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and one of the forum's speakers.
The Virginia Tech researchers found the risks of texting generally applied to all drivers, not just truckers. A separate report by Car and Driver magazine found that texting and driving is more dangerous than drunken driving.
Congress is watching closely. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who will address the summit, and other Democrats introduced legislation in July that would require states to ban texting or e-mailing while operating a moving vehicle or lose 25 percent of their annual federal highway funding. The Obama administration has not taken a position on the bill.
Transportation officials will try to develop a consensus on the roadway hazards and hear warnings from young adults who caused car accidents because they were texting while driving.
On the Net:
Distracted Driving Summit: http://www.rita.dot.gov/distracted(underscore)driving(underscore)sum mit/
State's laws on cellphones, driving: http://www.iihs.org/laws/cellphonelaws.aspx
