As if we needed National Highway Traffic Safety Administration head Jeffrey Runge to tell us hands-free is a loser.
Research on this point is now gospel: Cell phones are brain drains on drivers, and hands-free devices do not improve the situation even if they free up both hands to drive. Indeed, hands-free offers false security, possibly even making the problem worse by encouraging drivers to talk more than they normally would.
It is time to shift gears, leave the dubious debate over legislative bans in the dust, and move on to a meaningful discussion about how America’s love affairs with cars and cell phones can safely coexist. People are dying needlessly. This is a big problem that seems to be getting worse, not better.
Turning the tide will take cooperation between industry and government, serious money for education and outreach, aggressive advocacy and political will.
If the past is any guide, the combination of law, enforcement and public education has proven successful in making the nation’s roads safer. But what law? Hands-free laws, generally toothless anyway, are themselves distractions to real progress. Laws banning novice drivers from talking on cell phones (including hands-free) while driving-an idea endorsed by the National Transportation Safety Board-make sense. With in-vehicle wireless traffic so valuable to the $80 billion cell-phone industry, there is little chance of legislating the unthinkable. Besides, there would have to be exceptions to such a law. The mobile phone, one of many distractions in automobiles, also happens to be a big safety asset to drivers.
Wireless companies and policy-makers are not driving blind on this issue. The roadmap is there, familiar to all of us. Consider the war on drunk driving. NHTSA, MADD and others have done a superb job changing the behavior of all of us who get behind the wheel. But it did not happen overnight, and the job is not finished.
Wireless firms should consider driver safety an opportunity as well as an obligation, not a nuisance. With its inspired campaign aimed at teenage drivers, Cingular Wireless L.L.C. is scoring points with the same communities that review their siting applications. Good corporate citizenship can pay dividends in official Washington, too.
The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association should continue to support driver safety, perhaps beef up the campaign a bit. Steve Largent, who took over the trade group last November, has a chance to take a strong leadership stand on the issue.
The $250,000 NHTSA gave Ogilvy PR to develop and test market ads discouraging teens from talking on cell phones while driving is a pitiful pittance compared with the amount of funding needed to make a dent in the problem. NHTSA needs clear direction and money from Congress. It would help, too, if Transportation Secretary Mineta would mail the letter drafted last year telling the nation’s governors that hands-free is voodoo ergonomics.
