Distracted driving an epidemic, summit told

“Distracted driving is a menace to society,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Wednesday as he opened the federal summit on text messaging, cell phoning and other forms of dangerous behaviors behind the wheel.

The government was ready with the statistical evidence: 5,870 people were killed and 515,000 were injured in 2008 in which distracted driving was a factor. Sixteen percent of fatal crashes had the link, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found.

“Distracted driving is an epidemic and it seems to be getting worse every year,” LaHood told his audience of experts on traffic safety.

The summit was inspired by the growing national alarm over the problems of inattentive driving, primarily the potentially deadly practice of text messaging while driving, a practice seen as common among young adults.

One of the opening day’s hot topics was whether hands-free devices really do make cell phone use by drivers safer. Another discussion looked at the the difficulties faced by law officers trying to determine if drivers are texting.

One expert called text messaging while driving “the perfect storm that brings together visual, manual and cognitive demands.”

On Thursday, LaHood plans to unveil the steps his DOT will take to address the distracted driving crisis.

Still, “You can’t legislate behavior,” LaHood said. “Taking personal responsibility for our actions is the key.”

The public is invited to view the summit online and to submit questions for the panelists. View the page for the distracted driving webcast.

Wide support for bans on texting, driving

About 80 percent of Americans favor bans on text messaging while driving, according to a new poll on distracted driving habits. A majority of those polled would like to see laws restricting all types of cell phone use behind the wheel — regardless of whether a hands-free device is employed.

The Nationwide Insurance poll on cell phones and text messaging by drivers, conducted in early August, surveyed more than 1,000 adults nationwide. It was conducted independently, by Harris Interactive.

Almost two-thirds of the respondents backed some controls on cell phone use by drivers.

Three-fourths of those in tech-savvy age groups (21-44) wanted to see bans on text messaging and emailing while driving.

The distracted-driving study found a big drop in those admitting to using cell phones while behind the wheel. In 2008, more than 80 percent of those polled admitted to yakking and motoring. This year, only 49% fessed up. Even though some large states like California have recently outlawed the practice, Nationwide suspected “many drivers are either in denial about their DWD (driving while distracted) habits.”

More than 80% of those who admitted to using cell phones on the road said they wouldn’t change their habit unless laws compelled them to do so. And 18% said they’d drive and phone regardless of what the law said.

While some states restrict handheld cell phone use by younger drivers, the poll found three-quarters of respondents wanted the laws applied equally to all motorists.

Trucks, texting a deadly mix

A study of professional truckers indicates that even pros are severely handicapped while text messaging behind the wheel.

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s study found that the truckers were 23 times more likely to get in a wreck while texting. The researchers placed video cameras in the cabs of long-haul trucks over a year and a half period. About 100 truck drivers participated.

In the collisions recorded by the cameras, drivers typically looked at their text messaging devices for five seconds before the accident, the New York Times said in reporting on the Virginia Tech texting study.

The video cameras were focused on drivers’ faces in the seconds before a crash or a near-miss.

Researchers said the danger of crashing while texting applies to all drivers, since they did not find texting behaviors out of the ordinary among the professional truck drivers. The institute is also studying teenagers who text while driving, and the results seem in line with the trucker data.

The estimate that drivers who are texting are 23 times more likely to crash is significantly higher than other studies have reported.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration helped pay for the texting and trucking study.

Virginia Tech and the University of Utah are among the most active research operations looking at various forms of distracted driving.