A leading watchdog group accused the Bush administration in a lawsuit of withholding records on traffic deaths associated with cellphone use by operators of motor vehicles, one of several developments that suggest the driver-distraction debate may be shifting toward advocacy favoring stricter laws and...
WASHINGTON - Federal regulators agree that distracted drivers are dangerous. But the government won't require phones built into cars and trucks to shut down automatically when the vehicles are moving.Longtime safety advocate Clarence Ditlow proposed such a rule last year. It would have required...
Senate lawmakers blasted Bush administration policy-makers over the implementation of a $43.5 million matching grant program to upgrade emergency dispatch centers so they can receive and process enhanced 911 location data from mobile phones.The Enhanced 911 Act, signed into law in December 2004, directed...
WASHINGTON-A new study claims mobile-phone use while driving is as dangerous as drinking while behind the wheel, reinforcing previous research on distracted driving and further complicating industry's message the wireless phones are a safety tool. "We found that people are as impaired when they...
WASHINGTON—A new government study examining actual driver habits when behind the wheel found cell phone use the most common distraction for operators of motor vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which characterized as "landmark" research findings from...
WASHINGTON—The Senate Commerce Committee Thursday easily passed several nominations after it decided not to consider its cell-phone privacy bill due to pressing business on the Senate floor. The Commerce Committee sent to the full Senate for its consideration the nominations of Robert McDowell to...
LAKE FOREST, Calif.-Mobile TV chipmaker Newport Media Inc. said it added $25 million to its funding coffers during a second round of fundraising. The round, led by Oak Investment Partners, brings the company's total funding to more than $36 million. The company said it...
WASHINGTON-Minnesota has become the latest state to enforce legislation restricting cell-phone use by teenage drivers, the 10th state to do so in the face of mounting research on the dangers of talking on the phone while driving. Given their inexperience behind the wheel, teens...
WASHINGTON-The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said driver cell phone use jumped to 6 percent in 2005. NHSTSA, whose data was compiled from the National Occupant Protection Use Survey, said nearly a million motorists are talking on the phone at any given time during...
WASHINGTON-The Michigan House of Representatives could vote this week on a bill banning teens under the age of 18 from talking on cell phones while driving."When I was working in the Oakland County prosecutors' office, I saw several cases where accidents and even deaths...
WASHINGTON-Two new studies sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that cell phones are a major source of driver distraction and driver use of hands-free devices actually could be worse than talking on handheld phones while behind the wheel. "An analysis of...
WASHINGTON-Two new studies sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that cell phones are a major source of driver distraction and driver use of hands-free devices could actually be worse than talking on handheld phones while behind the wheel."An analysis of these...
WASHINGTON-Members of the House Commerce Committee led by Reps. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), co-chairs of the Congressional E911 Caucus, urged congressional appropriators last week to fully fund E911 grants and the Joint Program Office created in a bill signed by President...
WASHINGTON-Members of the House Commerce Committee led by Reps. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), co-chairs of the Congressional E911 Caucus, urged congressional appropriators Tuesday to fully fund E911 grants and the Joint Program Office created in a bill signed by President George...
WASHINGTON-The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says cell-phone use by drivers is on the rise. In 2004, according to a new NHTSA survey, approximately 8 percent of all motorists in the United States-or about 1.2 million drivers-were using cellular phones (both handheld and hands-free)...
WASHINGTON-The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today said cell-phone use by drivers is on the rise. In 2004, according to a new NHTSA survey, approximately 8 percent of all motorists in the United States-or about 1.2 million drivers-used cellular phones (both handheld and hands-free)...
WASHINGTON-After years of fighting and lobbying, public safety scored a major victory late last year with the passage of the Enhanced 911 Act, but it now appears to be a hollow victory. When President George W. Bush presented his budget request to Congress Feb....
WASHINGTON-Former Rep. Wes Watkins (R-Okla.) agreed to a $2 million settlement in connection with a fatal car crash in which driver cell-phone use is alleged, but the ex-lawmaker faces possible jail time over a district attorney's charge of negligent homicide. The settlement comes as...
WASHINGTON-Minutes (literally) before the Senate adjourned for the year, it managed to pass a troika of important wireless bills-spectrum relocation, enhanced 911 upgrades and universal service. "It was dicey. There was never a moment until it got done that we were confident that it...
WASHINGTON-The lawyer for a Mississippi car dealer accused in a $15 million suit alleging cell-phone use contributed to a fatal driving accident in March said his client is innocent, and any punitive damages awarded would be unconstitutional. "Damages and injuries, if any,...
A hard nationwide date for the end of the transition to digital TV will reduce the value of the spectrum to be auctioned to the commercial wireless industry, complained John Lawson, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, as he argued for a...
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...
WASHINGTON-The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed that an upcoming government study will say hands-free headsets do not make driver use of cell phones safe and that Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta last year was set to send letters to the nation's governors to tell...
WASHINGTON-A Mississippi woman filed a $15 million lawsuit in state court alleging a driver talking on his cell phone ran a red light and killed her husband. But while individuals and their employers find themselves in the line of fire in distracted-driving suits, wireless...
