Congress Working to Combat Distracted Driving
Many states have enacted laws that totally or partially ban using a cell phone or texting while driving. Even the federal government is getting into the act.

August 01, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Distracted driving has long been a problem in the United States. From eating or drinking, reading a map, or using a cell phone, there are a number of ways drivers can get distracted behind the wheel. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association over 500,000 people are injured in accidents involving distracted drivers each year and nearly 6,000 people are killed every year as a result.

As cell phone ownership and use rises, the prevalence of accidents also increases. A recent study by Virginia Tech's Transportation Institute found that texting while driving increases the risk of being in an accident by 23 times. Other studies have found that drivers on a cell phone experience reaction time rates similar to those of drunk drivers.

As a result, many states have enacted laws that totally or partially ban using a cell phone or texting while driving. Even the federal government is getting into the act.

In October of 2009, Senators Jay Rockefeller and Frank Lautenberg introduced the Distracted Driving Prevention Act "to address the nationwide problem of distracted driving in both passenger and commercial vehicles." Senator Rockefeller notes that over 800,000 people are talking on their cell phones while driving at any given moment.

A companion bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Eliot Engel of New York. Neither bill has yet come up for a full vote by either legislative body.

Current State Restrictions

According to the Governor's Highway Safety Association, 8 states ban handheld devices and thirty states ban texting while driving. If enacted, the law would provide incentive grants for states that ban the use of handheld devices and texting while driving. Florida is one of only a handful of states that has no current restriction on cell phone use or texting in a vehicle.

Many of the state texting laws have been enacted in 2010. Florida, however, has resisted any change to the law. Despite support from the Governor and the head of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, the idea has never gained any traction in the legislature. According to The St. Petersburg Times, more than a dozen bills were up for discussion on this topic going into the 2010 legislative session.

The Florida State Senate recently passed, by a 34-4 margin, a bill that would ban texting by driving. The House, however, has refused to take up a vote on the issue.

Opposition to Bill

Despite the overwhelming evidence that texting and cell phone use while driving is dangerous, there is some opposition to the federal bill. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi says that federal intervention could result in the bill being too broad. He also believes that states should take the lead in banning the practice.

In Florida specifically, the Senate bill was never scheduled for a vote in the House. According to The Palm Beach Post, Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, found the bill "intellectually dishonest" and refused to schedule the bill for a hearing in the committee she chairs. She also cited difficulties in enforcing the ban and the vast number of distracting activities people do in their car as reasons for opposing the bill.

Bogdanoff prefers to address all of the activities people do in their car that are distracting, as opposed to banning one in particular, and that it would be best to address the issue from a "different perspective."

Education Efforts

While the recent focus has been on creating laws that prohibit these activities, there is also an element of education that has gone into efforts to reduce accidents and fatalities due to distracted driving.

The federal government has launched distraction.gov in an effort to educate the public about the dangers of distracted driving. It defines distracted driving as a "non-driving activity a person engages in that has the potential to distract him or her from the primary task of driving and increase the risk of crashing."

Despite the focus on cell phones and texting, distracted driving comes in many forms. There can be visual distractions, which involve taking your eyes off the road; cognitive distractions, where you lose focus on driving; as well as manual distractions, such as taking your hands off the wheel. Distraction.gov notes that texting is one of the more dangerous activities drivers can do behind the wheel because it involves all three types of distractions.

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