What do Oprah, the Department of Transportation, the Triple A, insurance companies and, state governors have in common?
The US Department of Transportation just offered a plan to forbid text messaging at the wheel by interstate truck and bus drivers. This regulatory action follows up on Department of Transportation public service program to lessen the number of distracted drivers that lead to accidents.
The proposal would make permanent the temporary ban put in place at the beginning of the calendar year by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The planned ban applies to bus drivers and truck drivers operating vehicles with a gross vehicle weight over ten thousand pounds. As an indication of the scope of the issue, the drivers could face civil penalities and/or even criminal charges.
The United States Transportation Department reported almost 6,000 people died and about 515,000 were injured in 2008 in accidents involving distracted drivers. They has not determined how many of those accidents involved mobile device. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration mirror the Transportation Department statistics with projection that around eighty percent of accidents are caused by driver distraction. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety is sponsoring research to determine the extent of the distracted driver problem. The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) reports that driver inattention is a determining factor in many crashes, and mobile phone use and sending text messages are some of the most common driver distractions.
State legislatures have reacted to the growing concern regarding cell phone calls and sending text messages while driving by passing a variety of new laws, inclucing banning handheld cell phone use or texting by all drivers or restricting mobile phone use or sending text messages for a specific demographic, such as teens or school bus drivers. The GHSA reports that currently 20 states plus the District of Columbia ban drivers of all types of vehicles from texting while behind the wheel. Another nine states against texting by new drivers. Most states are expected to implement the ban before too long. But it is also believed that the laws are not enough to stop the problem and technical solutions are required. The GHSA purports to say it supports texting bans for all drivers, but has doubts about enforcement.
A leading company with a monitoring solution is Phone Beagle. PhoneBeagle is installed on Android and BlackBerry mobile phones and monitors GPS location, and text messages along with other phone log events.
The trucking and passenger bus industries support the texting ban, and many corporations have enforced policies against texting while behind the wheel. The government, industry and safety organizations all agree that driver distraction caused bytexting is a menace to society, and is worthy of action. Advocates for dealing with the problem also include media powerhouse Oprah Winfrey.
Without question there are many distractions which may prevent a driver focusing on driving: fiddling with the radio or a inserting tape or CD, talking to passengers, observing an event outside the vehicle, and of course, using cellphones and texting. Navigational and other interactive devices also cause inattention.
As regulations and technology work to to solve the issues a software package from Phone Beagle is available to help deal with monitoring phone use. PhoneBeagle is installed on Android and BlackBerry mobile phones and monitors GPS location, and text messages along with other phone log events.
Tags: cell phones, distracted drivers, legislation, mobile, Oprah, Phone Beagle, regulations, text messaging