In the dog days, a safety warning

Doggie distractions: AAA just updated its poll on pet owners who drive with their dogs in the vehicle. Once again, the survey found the pet owners fessing up to their potentially dangerous behaviors.

About 6 of 10 drivers who own dogs reported that they bring their canines along on car trips. About a quarter of the respondents said they use their hands or arms to restrain the dog while braking.

Almost 20 percent of the drivers said they reach into the back seat to interact with the dog, while 17 percent of the drivers allow their pets to sit their laps.

“83 percent of respondents acknowledge that an unrestrained dog in a moving car can be dangerous, but only 16 percent currently use a pet restraint,” the survey found.

The leading reason for not using a restraint was the owner felt the dog was calm and did not need restraining. AAA warned that in a crash, unrestrained dogs (calm or not) are flying objects, capable of doing great damage to themselves and to anyone in their way.

Education could be key. The AAA survey found that use of a restraint is three times greater with drivers who knew about cases in which unrestrained dogs were injured or caused injury to other passengers in a car crash (32 percent) compared with respondents who were not aware of such a situation but still used a restraint (9 percent).

The co-sponsor was Kuro, which (conveniently) sells pet-restraint services.

The online study was conducted using a sample of 1,000 dog owners who have driven with their dog in past year. A similar survey was released in 2010.

Double trouble for distracted driver; mayor busted

A pair of odds and ends, with the emphasis on odd:

Here’s a candidate for the world’s most brazen distracted driver: British police were in the process of stopping David Secker of Norwich for using a handheld cell phone while driving on a freeway. To their astonishment, the officers then realized that he was texting on another cell phone. The capper: Secker reportedly made the officer wait for him to finish his cell phone call. Sentencing is Aug. 15.

Toronto’s mayor allegedly gave the finger to a citizen who scolded him for using a cell phone while driving. Ottilie Mason said she gave Mayor Rob Ford a thumbs-down signal and he replied with the one-finger salute. Mason’s 6-year-old was in the car. A spokesman told the Toronto Sun that the mayor was indeed cell-phoning, but no flip-off occurred. Mason told the Sun: “I have wondered whether he would have given me the finger if I was a police officer telling him to get off his cell phone.”

In N.Y., texting a primary offense

New York means business with violators of its texting and driving law: The governor signed legislation giving primary enforcement status to the offense.

That means law officers can stop and cite offenders of the state’s electronic distracted driving laws. Handheld cell phone use already carries primary enforcement status in New York.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo also said he would order the DMV to carry out his plan to assess a third point against the drivers licenses of texting and handheld cell phone violators.

“It’s plain and simple: Distracted driving leads to tragedies that have affected families all across New York,” Cuomo said while signing the bill in Manhattan on July 12. “This new law will help ensure that drivers keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel.”

The Assembly and Senate on June 14 approved the texting plan, sponsored by Sen. Carl Marcellino, R-Long Island, and Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg, D-Nassau County. The law resulting from bills S5643 and A8106 did not increase penalties for violators — just increased the chances of their being pulled over and cited. The fine for violations remains at $150.

The governor’s plan for the third point did not clear the legislative, so he’s doing it administratively, via state regulations. New Yorkers who text and drive became subject to 2-point penalties earlier this year. That rule change brought handheld cell phone violations in line with penalties under the state’s newer (2009) text messaging law.

Marcellino said at the texting-bill signing, “With this new legislation, New York State driving laws have finally caught up with today’s technology.”

Weisenberg added, “As a former police officer, I’ve seen the devastation caused by distracted drivers. Today, we are giving law enforcement the tools they need to keep our roads safe and prevent future accidents.

Read the New York distracted driving news page

DOT vs. GHSA on cell bans

Days after a group of state highway safety officials urged a halt to new handheld cell phone legislation, the federal DOT is out with its own study indicating that distracted driving bans can indeed work.

The U.S. Transportation Department said July 11 that two local crackdowns on handheld cell phone use and text messaging while driving — in Syracuse, N.Y., and Hartford, Ct. — resulted in significant drops in those distracted driving behaviors.

“It is crystal clear that those who try to minimize this dangerous behavior are making a serious error in judgment, especially when half a million people are injured and thousands more are killed in distracted driving accidents,” DOT chief Ray LaHood wrote, almost certainly pointing the finger at the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Four days earlier, the GHSA released a “comprehensive overview” of more than 350 scientific papers published between 2000 and 2011. It found “no evidence that cell phone or texting bans have reduced crashes.” The GHSA did no field work of its own.

Among its recommendations: “States that have not already passed handheld bans should wait until more definitive research and data are available on these laws’ effectiveness.”

The Syracuse and Hartford enforcement crackdowns — funded in large part by the federal DOT — posted these results, according to the DOT:

• In Syracuse, a one-third reduction in drivers’ handheld cell phone use and text messaging.
• In Hartford, a 57 percent drop in handheld phone use and an almost 75 percent reduction in text messaging.
• Syracuse police issued 9,587 citations for electronic distracted driving, while Hartford officers wrote 9,658 tickets.

There were four periods of increased enforcement in these pilot cities over the past year.

The DOT said its results were logged by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration personnel who “actively observed cell phone use and conducted public awareness surveys at driver licensing offices.” The GHSA agreed that the DOT sweeps worked but did not say how it came to that conclusion.

GHSA executive director Barbara Harsha, who headed that group’s study of studies, noted that “much of the research is incomplete or contradictory” on electronic distracted driving. The GHSA report did call for texting bans for all drivers, as well as laws against the use of wireless communications devices by inexperienced drivers.

The GHSA’s top recommendations included the installation of “effective, low-cost roadway countermeasures such as edgeline and centerline rumble strips, which alert motorists when they are drifting out of their driving lane.”

The GHSA report clearly provides support for opponents of handheld cell phone legislation, as did a recent insurance industry study that found state bans ineffective at stopping crashes. State Farm funded the GHSA report.

The DOT next plans to test the Syracuse-Hartford template of tough laws, enforcement sweeps and education efforts at the statewide level.