Far from distracted in Southern California

Out here in Calfornia, it’s hard to remember how it was. Back in the bad old days, before the state banned the use of handheld cell phones while driving.

Sure you see the occasional fool holding a mobile phone to his ear, but for the most part people here have accepted that phone calls can wait until the drive’s over. Too bad we can’t quantify the quite apparent but subjective truth that the freeways are better and safer with the cell phone and text messaging bans.

It was gratifying, then, to read this bit of confirmation in a letter to the editor of the Baltimore Sun:

I just returned from a week’s vacation in southern California, and I was amazed that during my many trips on I-5 and I-405 that I did not see one person holding a cell phone while driving. … Also, I did not see cars wandering from one lane to another, cars going to slow on the interstate, and no accidents. Surprisingly, California drivers were attentive (even though they drive very fast) to what other cars were doing around them.

Thanks, Ron Wirsing. You’re welcome in our Golden State anytime.

NSC looks inside ‘distracted brain’

Drivers talking on cell phones often enter a state of “inattention blindness” in which they fail to see up to 50 percent of what’s ahead of them, according to a new report from the National Safety Council.

The NSC once again makes the case against driving and using cell phones — including those with hands-free devices — this time backed by about 30 research studies. The NSC estimates that 25 percent of the U.S. crashes in 2008 involved cell phone use.

“Driver distractions have joined alcohol and speeding as leading factors in fatal and serious injury crashes,” the NSC said.

The white paper is called “Understanding the Distracted Brain.”

The NSC report maintains there is no such thing as “multitasking,” and that activities such as driving and talking on a phone require the brain to switch back and forth between these tasks. Researchers say there is a “reaction-time switching cost,” in which the brain changes its focus.

With cell phones and driving, “two usually unrelated activities become interrelated when a person is behind the wheel. These tasks compete for our brain’s information processing resources. There are limits to our mental workload.”

This likely explains the University of Utah study that found drunken drivers were better at reacting to traffic events than those who were on cell phones.

The NSC concludes, in part: “We know from other traffic safety issues — impaired driving, safety belts, speeding -– that consistent enforcement of laws is the single most important effective strategy in changing behavior.

“Education, policies, laws and technology must address the prevention of both handheld and hands-free cell phone use by drivers.”

Read the National Safety Council white paper (PDF).

Wyoming to round up texting drivers

Wyoming became the 20th state to ban text messaging while driving, as its governor signed legislation that will go into effect on July 1.

The anti-texting legislation (Senate File 20), was sponsored by Sen. Floyd Esquibel, D-Cheyenne, who has authored multiple distracted driving bills in the past.

The law calls for primary enforcement (police can stop and cite violators when spotted) with fines of $75.

Esquibel noted that his newly minted law does apply to all drivers, it is mostly aimed at the young generation that’s hooked on texting. It’s “primarily for an age group that is already at high risk simply because of age,” the state senator said after the measure was approved.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal agreed that teen drivers are the most likely group to engage in texting while driving.

“Wyoming has taken an important step to eliminate distracted driving,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “Texting while driving, like talking on cell phones while driving, is dangerous to the driver doing it and all of those around them.”

The distracted driving law won final approval in the House on March 3 and the governor signed the measure a week later.

Wash. state gets primary enforcement

One of 2010′s fiercest legislative battles over distracted driving raged in Washington — a state that already has banned handheld cell phone use and texting by drivers.

Gov. Chris Gregoire signed the distracted driving legislation on March 26, clearing the way for enforcement to begin June 10.

“To those who have said to me that it’s no different than having a cup of coffee, the coffee doesn’t talk back to me,” Gregoire said at the signing. “Coffee doesn’t have anything to say to me. A cell phone does,” she said.

(This story has been updated twice.)

On March 11, the civil war ended as the House agreed with the Senate that the state’s bans on text messaging and handheld cell phone use should be toughened. The plan now goes to the governor, who has indicated he would sign it.

“I’ve fought for this for 10 years, and sometimes I thought this day would never come,” said Sen. Tracey Eide, the bill’s sponsor. “Maybe now people will pay attention to their driving instead of their conversations.”

Eide, D-Federal Way, led the Senate on March 6 in rejecting the House’s attempt to water down her legislation that would elevate distracted driving offenses to “primary enforcement.”

The day before, the Seattle Times called representatives “a House of wimps,” adding: “this gutless group failed to approve meaningful legislation to combat this dangerous practice.”

Rep. Dan Roach, R-Bonney Lake, has been called out by several newspapers for his efforts to derail tougher distracted driving laws.

Meanwhile, in Iowa, the House and Senate have gone down different roads as well. The House approved a ban on text messaging for all drivers several weeks ago — and the Senate concurred — but on Monday representatives downshifted the legislation into a prohibition of handheld electronics devices that only applies to teen drivers.

(background below — material above updated on March 12.)

The Washington state standoff could continue if the House again sends watered-down legislation back to the Senate. The issue also could go to a joint committee that would seek some kind of compromise — although there is no obvious middle ground between the two types of enforcement.

“It is a long way from being done,” Eide told the Seattle TImes.

Secondary enforcement is a common way of weakening legislation designed to halt texting and cell phoning while behind the wheel. It’s been used across the nation for compromise bills and for amendments tacked onto stronger bills. While primary enforcement empowers law officers to stop and cite offenders as they would for most moving violations, secondary enforcement means police need another reason to stop offenders before issuing the ticket.

The state Senate voted Feb. 5 to toughen Washington’s law against texting and the use of handheld cell phones by targeting violators with primary (full) enforcement.

The House agreed with most of the bill, but on March 3 rejected its call for primary enforcement for adult cell phone violations.

The Senate then rejected the House changes in a Saturday session, on March 6.

Your texting & driving rights, defended by patriots

Strangest beginning to a news story we’ve seen in a while:

“PHOENIX — Arizona drivers’ right to compose and send text messages from behind the wheel of a moving vehicle has successfully been defended.”

This from a report on the defeat of a distracted driving bill, written by Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services. The headline in the Arizona Star noted that the bill “was sent packing.”

Guess the Arizona cops would have to pry the text messaging devices from freedom lovers’ cold dead hands.

A distinct possibility, if you think about it.