The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommended on Tuesday that states outlaw texting, emailing and talking on cell phones while driving, even with the aid of hands-free systems. Of her department’s proposal for regulation NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said; “…no call, no text, no update is worth a human life.” But even the NTSB’s own recommendations about what’s safe and what’s not are muddy and smell more politics on the eve of an election year than a tangible safety directive aimed at saving lives.There’s no doubt that texting while driving is a serious problem and warrants punishment. Driving requires that your hands remain on the wheel and that your eyes are on the road. The NTSB recommendations call for a total ban of any use of cell phones even assisted hands-free devices. The government agency charged with the investigation of automotive accidents on the nation’s highways wants each state to separately ban cell phone use while driving as it lacks the authority to create any sweeping federal regulations.
But the recommendations and conclusions expressed in the NTSB press release are unclear and seem politically motivated.
The NTSB press release provides ample motives for a ban on texting while driving, but it lacks the clarity for the purpose of banning in-car wireless communication aided by a hands-free devices. It relies on horrible stories of accidents that have occurred when people are texting or emailing while driving and fails to give anecdotal examples of the dangers of driving while using a Bluetooth headset.
Worse still is that CNN reports the proposed NTSB ban on cell phones doesn’t apply to built-in communications and infotainment systems like OnStar by GM or Ford Sync. This implies that talking on the phone while driving isn’t really a core problem.
Are we ready for sweeping bans on all in-car communication devices when completely voice-controlled hands-free systems are being lumped together with texting while driving?
Meanwhile built-in GPS and in-car entertainment systems that require the drivers to take their eyes off the road and at least one hand off the wheel to adjust in-dash controls constitute just as much distraction as texting on cell phones – are fully permitted based on NTSB recommendations.
Election-year hijinks!
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) is heading up a bill that would take the power of self-regulation out of the hands of states and simply create one sweeping Federal Government regulation. Bill H.R. 2333 aka The Safe Drivers Act of 2011 calls for a single national standard for distracted-driving legislation. But The Safe Drivers Act and the NTSB regulation suffer the same inconsistencies. Bluetooth devices are the same infraction as texting while driving but built-in devices which are even more distracted are deftly avoided. Both take care not to be seen as doing anything to hinder the delicate economic recovery of the automotive industry.
The two main studies cited for distracted-driving legislation were conducted by the University of Utah and Virginia Tech respectively.
Both studies seem to agree that the most life-threatening distracted-driving occurs whenever the distraction bridges a cognitive distraction, which occurs when you think about anything other than the task at hand, to a manual or visual distraction. In other words – not thinking about driving coupled with taking your hands off the wheel or your eyes off the road puts you in eminent danger of a collision.
According to the University of Utah study this distracted-driving combination leaves drivers with impairment equal to a .08 blood-alcohol level – well over the legal limit.
Learn more about the University of Utah Distracted-Driving study.
Legislation with names like “Safe Drivers”, make great political sound-bites in the evening news. But the issue is more complex than any one-size-fits-all regulation can address. The fact is in-car technology, the likes of which the NTSB and Safe Drivers want to ban makes driving safer.
Even Ray LaHood whose unwavering consistent view that all in-car systems should be banned admits that despite the recent pervasiveness of cell phones in the last decade, driving has never been safer. After a drop of 2.9 percent last year, traffic fatalities are the lowest since 1949.
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