Lawmakers Pitch Solutions to Driver Texting ‘Epidemic’

This story appears in the Oct. 5 print edition of Transport Topics.

WASHINGTON — While government officials, researchers and industry executives debated the merits of limiting driver distractions, state and federal lawmakers used last week’s distracted driving summit to pitch their various solutions to what Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called “an epidemic.”

During the two-day summit, where LaHood announced that he would ban texting and restrict truckers’ use of in-cab communications units, legislators pushed plans ranging from higher fines for accidents that resulted from any distractions to a federal law pushing states to ban texting.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) looked to summit attendees, including LaHood, to endorse a bill he introduced earlier this year, the ALERT Drivers Act (“Avoiding Life-Endangering and Reckless Texting by Drivers Act”) that would strip states that don’t ban texting of 25% of their federal highway money.

“The fact is that the federal government cannot by itself outlaw texting while driving — only states can — but the federal government can and should make it very hard on states that don’t go along,” Schumer said Sept. 30. He added that “sometimes the states need a little tough love to get them to go along.”

Schumer said that 20 states already had enacted texting bans, but “the majority have not.”

“We need every state to put safety first, and there’s long been a federal interest in the safety of the highways, and we have every right, desire and obligation to move forward. We need a ban on texting while driving in every state across the country, and we need it now,” Schumer said.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who is one of five co-sponsors of Schumer’s bill and a member of the Commerce Committee that would need to sign off on the bill first, said there are other ways states can move to limit texting while driving.

“I am shocked that not a single state, including my own, has enhanced criminal penalties for the driver who kills someone as a result of texting while driving,” said Klobuchar, a former prosecutor. She compared stiffer penalties to those faced by drunken drivers.

Klobuchar said stiffer penalties and a ban on texting while driving were important because “no text message is so urgent that it is worth dying over.”

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), another co-sponsor of the legislation, said the new law would “save young lives.”

“I’m completely amazed that anyone believes that it is a reasonable idea to take your eyes off of the road, look down and type a message while driving in traffic,” Menendez said.

Legislators from states where texting or other distraction bans already have been passed touted their effectiveness.

Joe Simitian, a Democratic state senator from California who wrote the state’s texting ban and hands-free cell-phone law, said legislation such as his “isn’t a cure-all.”

“You fix the problems you can fix, and you make the problems you can mitigate less significant,” he said.

Since California’s hands-free cell-phone law took effect last July, Simitian said traffic fatalities in the state are down 20%. He acknowledged that “we haven’t yet been able to establish a causal relationship . . . but it would however be an extraordinary coincidence to see a 20% reduction in the immediate aftermath.”

Recent declines in miles traveled nationwide have contributed to record low fatality totals across the country, but Simitian said that even as the mileage total dropped, the number of cell-phone users and number of licensed drivers in California has grown, partially offsetting the mileage decline.

Bill Diamond, a Democratic state senator from Maine, said lawmakers there “decided not to try to catch up to technology.”

“We just passed a law . . . that says if you are distracted in any way, doing anything, you are in violation of the law,” he said. “And distraction is defined as doing something that is not pertaining or necessary in the operation of a vehicle. So if you cause an accident, injure anyone, yourself or property, you will face additional penalties under Maine law.”

At the end of the first day of the summit, LaHood told reporters that as a result of the meeting, “there will be some other legislative initiatives, and we’ll find a way forward to do something legislatively. What that will be, we’ll figure it out with Congress.”

LaHood said those proposals likely would focus at first only on texting but could branch out to other forms of distraction later.

“I know that there will be a broader interest from Congress, but our priority now is to really deal with this distracted driving as it relates to texting. That’s really what we want to look at,” he said. “That’s not to say we won’t look at some of these other activities with cell phones. But I don’t want to be distracted from making sure that we can really eliminate texting while driving; that should really be our goal.”