U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood opened the second national Distracted Driving Summit on Tuesday by announcing an initiative to prohibit truck drivers from texting on the job when transporting hazardous materials.
Recalling the progress made in the “epidemic” of distracted driving, he announced that two rules proposed at last year’s summit that prohibited bus and truck drivers from texting while working and banning train operators from using electronic devices on the job have already become law.
As of September 2009, eight states have banned all handheld cell phone usage and 30 states have banned texting while driving.
“It’s an epidemic because everyone has a cell phone and everyone think they can use it while driving,” LaHood said, adding that he thinks there is no greatest distraction than phone usage while driving. “The only way to get to a place safely is to hang up and drive.”
Out of the 5,474 deaths and 448,000 injuries caused by distracted driving nationwide in 2009, LaHood said this was just the “tip of the iceberg” because many accident reports don’t document the presence of cell phone usage.
LaHood called the mission to stop cell phone usage while driving a situation “not without hope,” adding that drunk driving decreased almost 20 percent from 2006 to 2009 and seat belt usage increased from 60 to 85 percent over the past 15 years. However, he recognized the families that were affected by the actions of distracted drivers, thanking them for their presence Tuesday and willingness to share their stories.
“It’s not about statistics, but it’s about the people behind the statistics,” he said.
