National League of Cities_Article on Distracted DrivingMARCH 1, 2010
Cities Taking Action Against Distracted Driving
by Dan Johnson
U.S. Secretary of
Transportation Raymond H.
"Ray" LaHood will address
NLC's Transportation
Infrastructure and Services Policy
and Advocacy Committee this
month at the Congressional City
Conference in Washington, D.C.,
on ways that local govemments
can join the department in their
push to stop distracted driving.
This will be in addition to
LaHood speaking during a gener-
al session on Monday, March 15.
Last fall, LaHood convened
state and local officials, traffic
safety experts, researchers,
industry representatives and
safety advocates on the topic of
distracted driving and preven-
tative steps that the government
could take to end this danger-
ous and potentially deadly
behavior.
According to the National
Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, in 2008, 5,870
people lost their lives and an
estimated 515,000 people were
injured in police - reported
crashes in which at least one
form of driver distraction was
reported on the police crash
report. Distracted driving
comes in various forms, such
as cell phone use, texting while
driving, eating, drinking, talk-
ing with passengers, as well as
using in- vehicle technologies
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2008, 5,870 people
lost their lives and an estimated 515,000 people were injured in police - reported crashes
in which at least one form of driver distraction was reported on the police crash report.
and portable electronic devices.
For example, sending and
receiving text messages while
behind the wheel is a danger
made all too real for an increas-
ing number of communities.
The significant compilation of
tragic news stories, from
Washington to Honolulu, leave
no room to doubt the devastat-
ing threat distracted driving
poses on each and every com-
munity. Solutions vary, but
consent in favor of intervention
is predominantly unanimous
and support is strong between
all levels of government and
both sectors of the economy.
The Department of
Transportation (DOT) recently
released a sample law frame-
work designed to assist city and
state governments in banning
the deadly practices, such as
sending text messages. The
sathple framework and other
information on the Distracted
Driver initiative is available at
www.distraction.gov.
On October 1, 2009,
President Obama issued
Executive Order 13513 ban-
ning government employees'
ability to text while driving.
And the DOT sample law doc-
ument recognizes that "by the
end of 2009, 19 states and the
District of Columbia had enact-
ed legislation banning texting-
while- driving for all drivers,
while a number of other states
had laws covering specific
types of drivers, such as novice
drivers or school bus drivers."
Though momentum is strong,
federal and state legislators are
looking for bottom -up support
led by cities.
The Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration recently
cited research stating "drivers
who send and receive text mes-
sages take their eyes off the
road for an average of 4.6 sec-
onds out of every 6 seconds
NATION'S CITIES WEEKLY 5
while texting. At 55 miles per
hour, this means that the driver
is traveling the length of a foot-
ball field, including the end
zones, without looking at the
road. Drivers who text while
driving are more than 20 times
more likely to get in an acci-
dent than non - distracted driv-
ers."
Statistics Collected by the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Using a cell phone while driving,
whether it's hand -held or hands -free, delays a
driver's reactions as much as having a blood
alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08
percent, according to the University of Utah.
• Driving while using a cell phone
reduces the amount of brain activity associ-
ated with driving by 37 percent, according to
Carnegie Mellon University.
• Eighty percent of all crashes and 65
percent of near crashes involve some type
of distraction, according to a Virginia
Tech University 100 -car study for the
National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA).
• Nearly 6,000 people died in 2008 in
crashes involving a distracted or inattentive
driver, and more than half a million were
injured, according to NHTSA.
• The worst offenders are the youngest
and least experienced drivers — men and
women under 20 years of age — according to
NHTSA.
• Drivers who use hand -held devices are
four times as likely to get into crashes serious
enough to injure themselves according to the
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.