Texting While Driving: Transportation Secretary Advocates Ban

Aug. 4, 2009— -- If it were his decision, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood would ensure that every text message and Blackberry e-mail you send from behind the wheel would be a crime.

"If it were up to me, I would ban drivers from texting immediately," LaHood said today in a news conference on the dangerous combo of driving and texting.

But it's not up to LaHood. State legislatures are responsible for deciding whether to prohibit texting while driving, and thus far several states have done just that: On Friday, New Hampshire and Oregon became the 15th and 16th states to prohibit the practice.

"Regardless of the law, texting and driving should not mix. We need to restore some common sense to driving," Barbara Harsha, the executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, said in the July 31 statement announcing the state bans.

The New Hampshire and Oregon laws take effect in January of next year, with New Hampshire's law also specifying that typing on a laptop or any other device is also illegal while driving. In addition to state texting laws, five states and the District of Columbia have also decided that drivers can use cell phones in transit if, and only if, they use a hands-free device to carry on the conversation.

This morning LaHood announced a September summit to examine various options on how to remedy distracted driving. Transportation officials, law enforcement and members of Congress will be among those who gather for the Transportation Department's meeting on texting while driving.

"When we are done, I expect to have a list of concrete steps to announce," LaHood said.

The summit plan comes as more and more information about the dangers of electronic distractions while driving spur lawmakers to take action.

A July 27 study from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute focused on long-haul truck drivers, finding that drivers who text are 23 times more likely to crash than those who don't.

And documents released earlier last month by Public Citizen and the Center for Auto Safety revealed that documents from the Transportation Department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration charged that the government has not been up front for six years about driving distractions caused by cell phones.

The death of a teen this summer who was texting while driving in LaHood's hometown illustrates the problem, and several other accidents have impacted people around the country:

Last week, the distracted driver of a tow truck injured two people in Western New York while texting and chatting.

More than 60 people were injured in Boston on May 8 when two trolleys collided shortly after the a trolley operator sent a text message to his girlfriend.

In September 2008, 25 commuters died and another 135 were hurt on a train in Southern California -- including the operator, who sent 29 text messages on the day of the crash.