Groups to Push for More Curbs, Education on Phone Use Behind the Wheel in 2009
A coalition of consumer groups and other agencies is preparing to put further pressure on the government to curb mobile phone use behind the wheel in 2009 and plans to step up educational campaigns about the dangers of talking and texting while driving -- hoping to make it a social stigma akin to driving drunk.
One watchdog group has already gone as far as filing a lawsuit against the Bush administration, charging that records on traffic deaths related to phone use by drivers is being withheld by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Additionally, the National Safety Council, a potent force behind the enactment of seatbelt laws, is expected to make an announcement in January on how the U.S. should approach cell-phone use behind the wheel, while an alliance of consumer and safety advocates and the insurance industry plans to push for tougher laws and more education on phone-related driver distraction, according to a recent article in RCR Wireless News.
The lawsuit by Public Citizen is part of a larger effort by the advocacy group to highlight its position that existing handheld-phone bans in five states and the District of Columbia are ineffective and difficult to enforce, and that more drastic measures are required to keep the roads safe from phone-wielding distracted drivers.
The suit claims that the NHTSA refuses to release a 2003 government study that for the first time estimated traffic fatalities attributable to mobile-phone use by drivers at 955 for 2002. Public Citizen filed the suit in federal court on behalf of the Center for Auto Safety (CAS) to obtain access to the study.
NHSTA has declined to comment on the lawsuit, but the federal agency has publicly declared that hands-free devices do not make driving safer.
Earlier this year, NHTSA also rejected a CAS petition to restrict the operation of telematic communications systems, such as OnStar, while a vehicle is in motion. The petition seeks a "total ban" on any type of in-car communication that could potentially distract a driver, and it focuses on the growing trend of telematics becoming standard equipment in many vehicles. CAS plans to re-file the petition in 2009, with the hope that recent studies on the ineffectiveness of using a cell phone hands-free to avoid dangerous distraction -- and the arrival of a new administration -- will improve its chances this time around.
Because of the difficulty state governments have faced in attempting to simply pass driver handheld phone bans -- not to mention the difficulty in enforcing existing laws -- the chance of getting legislators to sponsor and successfully pass laws that encompass hands-free devices is unrealistic.
Because of this, groups like NSC and AAA are gearing up for massive public awareness campaigns on par with those that were successful in turning public opinion against drunk driving. The outreach would be directed at the more than 50 percent of drivers that the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety claims talk on cell phones while behind the wheel and, according to the organization's recent research, feel that use of hands-free device is safer than talking on handheld phones while driving.
- Posted by
- Doug Newcomb December 23, 2008, 12:00 PM
- Permalink
- Categories:
- Car Audio and Electronics, Life with Cars
- Technorati Tags:
- AAA, Cell Phones, Distracted Driving, Hands-Free, Hands-Free Laws
National Safety Council is a bunch of busybodies and pseudo-intellectual thugs who seek to get legislation passed for "safety", send the police forth to harass people who are not bothering anyone, then end up lining their pockets when these folks are required to take a "defensive driving course" or else lose their driver's licenses. To wit:
http://www.ddcnsc.org/IL/Default.aspx
Let's hope that these efforts result in more advanced thinking about how to reconcile the need to communicate and drive. Total bans aren't the answer (can we prohibit talking to those in the back seat?). Personally, I find plugging in to a "hands free" device much more difficult than answering a cell phone. I'd like to see more cars equipped with some sort of internal blue tooth so "answering a call" is as simple as pressing a button on the dash that would cut out the stereo and pipe in the call.
Regulations that no one will follow (no communications while driving) are worse than none at all.