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Federal Agencies Team Up To Combat Distracted Driving

Innovative technologies could provide solution

By James Limbach
ConsumerAffairs.com

November 5, 2009

The DOT-FCC partnership will also include outreach efforts to educate the public about the dangers of texting while driving, talking on cell phones while driving, and other distracting behavior that can lead to deadly accidents.

"We must put an end to distracted driving, which is costing lives and inflicting injuries across the nation's roads and railways," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection. "I look forward to working with Chairman Genachowski and ensuring that FCC's and DOT's technology experts can join forces on this critical issue."

LaHood says the next step by his department toward banning distracted driving across will involve the initiation of three rulemakings:

• One to codify restrictions on the use of cell phones and other electronic devices in rail operations;

• One to consider banning text messaging and restricting the use of cell phones by truck and interstate bus operators while operating vehicles;

• And a third to disqualify school bus drivers convicted of texting while driving from maintaining their commercial driver's licenses.

In October, following the Transportation Department's Distracted driving Summit, Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, chairman of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security, offered incentive grants to states that enact laws to combat distracted driving. It would impose no new mandates and would be funded through existing programs, spending no additional taxpayer dollars.

"I welcome this collaborative effort to eliminate the increasingly deadly practice of distracted driving," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said. "Changing this ingrained behavior will require us to develop creative solutions using both technology and education. By combining the resources and expertise of the DOT and the FCC, I am confident that we can have a major impact on this problem."

Genachowski told the panel there are new technologies that could be used to generate an immediate impact on distracted driving. As an example, he pointed to smartphones and other technologies that he says "allow users to control their mobile phones and vehicle systems using their voices. These technologies might be used by drivers to avoid the dangerous distraction of looking at device screens."

Officials from the DOT and FCC will establish a working group to evaluate technology-based solutions to the problem of distracted driving and will coordinate consumer outreach and education.

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