What do Oprah, the US Secretary of Transportation, the Triple A, insurance companies and, state and federal legislators have in common?
The United States Department of Transportation just offered a plan to ban text messaging at the wheel by interstate truck and bus drivers. This regulatory action follows up on its call to lessen the number of distracted drivers that cause accidents.
The proposal would replace the temporary ban announced at the beginning of the calendar year by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The proposed ban applies to drivers of passenger buses and commercial trucks operating vehicles weighing more than five tons. To give an idea of the serious nature of the problem, violators could face civil penalities and/or even criminal charges.
The United States Department of Transportation reports almost 6,000 people died and about 515,000 were injured in 2008 in accidents involving distracted drivers. The department has not determined how many of those accidents involved an electronic device. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration echoes the Transportation Department statistics with an estimate that about eighty percent of crashes are caused by driver distraction. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety is funding research to determine the extent of the distracted driver problem. The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) states that driver inattention is a leading factor in many crashes, and cell phone use and sending text messages are leading causes of driver distractions.
State legislatures have reacted to the growing outrage over cell phone use and texting while driving by issuing 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 and the District of Columbia restrict drivers of all types of vehicles from sending text messages while behind the wheel. Another nine states against texting by beginner 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 technology is required. The GHSA purports to say it supports texting bans for all drivers, but does have concerns about enforcement.
A leading company with a monitoring solution is Phone Beagle. Their software is installed on Android and BlackBerry cell phones and monitors GPS location, and text messages along with other phone log activity.
The trucking and passenger bus industries support the texting prohibition, and many corporations have enforced policies prohibiting texting when 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 addressing the problem also include media powerhouse Oprah.
Undoubtedly there are many distractions which may prevent a driver focusing on driving: changing the radio or a putting in tape or CD, talking to passengers, rubber necking, and of course, using mobile phones and texting. Navigational and other interactive devices also cause inattention.
As regulations and technology work to to address the problems a software package from Phone Beagle is available to help deal with monitoring phone use. Their software installs on Android and BlackBerry cell phones and monitors GPS location, and text messages along with other phone log events.
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