WASHINGTON-Norman Mineta, confirmed last week by the Senate to head the Department of Transportation, said driver distraction is among the highway safety issues that will take top priority in the Bush administration.
“First of all, guaranteeing the safety of the traveling public is the No. 1 job at the Department of Transportation,” Mineta, the only Democrat in the Bush Cabinet, told Senate Commerce Committee members last Wednesday.
In addition to the growing problem of drivers’ attention being diverted from the road by cell phones, the Internet, navigation systems and other digital devices being integrated into passenger vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-a unit of DOT-faces other major challenges.
Nearly all transportation fatalities occur on the nation’s highways, according to DOT.
“Despite our generally solid performance on safety, we need to recognize we reached this point by constantly searching for the next best safety improvement that could be made,” Mineta told lawmakers. “We have to continue to do that, and we have to do it in a way that gets for the public the greatest possible safety improvement for each dollar spent.”
Asked about cell-phone driver distraction after his Senate confirmation hearing, Mineta said, “there are 1,001 of these items” of safety importance that need government attention.
The Senate voted unanimously to confirm Mineta, following similar approval by the Senate Commerce Committee.
“Some people say driving while using a cell phone is as dangerous as drinking. I don’t know that,” said Mineta. But, he said, that and other safety issues will be addressed by transportation officials in the Bush administration.
The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association has launched a new wave of radio spots on driver safety across the country that will air during drive time in coming months. The industry’s mantra continues to be, “Education, not legislation.”
But it’s unclear whether that tack is working. A new survey by the Insurance Research Council-a nonprofit group funded by the insurance industry-found less than half of the public believe safety campaigns on driver distraction work.
In recent years, reports of injuries and deaths caused by drivers with cell phones have increased. Cities and states around the country are pursuing legislation to ban talking on mobile phones while driving. In New York, Suffolk County has made it illegal, and towns in Ohio and Pennsylvania have done the same.
Meanwhile, state legislatures increasing are looking at driver-distraction problems, but to date no statewide laws have been passed. Minnesota and Mississippi, according to a published news report last week, are considering bills that would criminalize the use of mobile phones while driving. A recent Maryland lawsuit alleged criminal violations in connection with a driver who killed a family while he was speeding and talking on his mobile phone. But the court rejected the criminal claim in the case.
Dangers associated with loss of driver attention due to cell-phone conversations are not limited by geography. Japan and Taiwan are considering prohibitions.
NHTSA held a summit last summer to address the driver-distraction issue and solicited input via the Internet to help it conduct further research.
Dr. Joseph Kanianthra, director of NHTSA’s Office of Vehicle Safety Research, said driver-distraction data will be culled from computer simulations and test track experiments. A test track being built in East Liberty, Ohio, is on hold because of harsh winter weather. NHTSA-sponsored driver-distraction simulations are taking place at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and at the University of Iowa.
Last week, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory discovered the obvious: “Drivers bombarded with phone calls, e-mails and other distractions are more likely to make mistakes.”
Technical data from the research, sponsored by the DOT’s Intelligent Vehicle Initiative, is expected to be published in late summer. In the ORNL study, 36 people were asked to drive while talking on a mobile phone; while using a navigation system; while receiving news from the Internet; and while responding to a forward collision warning system.
Earlier this month, The Dayton Daily News reported researchers at Miami University found cell-phone use by drivers slowed the reaction time for braking by 24 percent.
As government officials and others study driver distraction, the auto industry is moving swiftly to incorporate new digital devices into vehicles as standard features.
Last week, the Detroit Free Press reported that the Automobile Multimedia Interface Collaboration-a group created by auto makers worldwide-have agreed on initial standards that will allow mobile phones and other digital electronic products to work with each other, regardless of the supplier or make of car.
At the same time, Mineta told lawmakers he wants to use technology more to address transportation problems.
Mineta had a key role in beginning the implementation of the Clinton administration’s third-generation mobile-phone spectrum plan. Mineta, like new Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans, pressed for better utilization of radio spectrum in written congressional testimony.
