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 a lockout mechanism to shut off any vehicle-integrated telephone or other communication device when a motorist shifted the transmission into drive or reverse.
The prohibition would have covered General Motors’ OnStar telematics system and Ford Motor Co.’s Sync onboard communication and entertainment device.
In a public notice this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it found “no reason to believe” Ditlow’s proposal “would result in safety benefits.”
Ditlow, the executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, disagrees.
“The issue is not going away because people are dying,” Ditlow said.
Ditlow calls distracted driving a threat that could rival drunken driving. He notes that some states have enacted laws that ban drivers from using hand-held mobile phones. But further safety regulation is needed, he says, because police cannot tell when a driver is using an in-vehicle device.
Research shows that a driver on a phone, hand-held or hands-free, is three to four times more likely to be in a crash than “attentive drivers,” Ditlow’s petition says.
GM and Ford opposed Ditlow’s proposal. GM said some of Ditlow’s assertions about OnStar were “without merit.”
NHTSA recommends that motorists not use phones while driving. But the agency argued that if it had adopted Ditlow’s proposal, motorists likely would have used hand-held phones more. Research from 2005 indicated that 6 percent of drivers were using hand-held phones at any time, NHTSA said.
NHTSA is examining technology that could increase the effectiveness of collision warning devices when drivers may be distracted, according to the notice rejecting Ditlow’s proposal.
Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have laws that restrict use of wireless communication devices by teenage drivers with learner’s or instructional permits, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Six states and the District of Columbia outlaw drivers’ use of handsets. The conference says Minnesota, New Jersey and Washington state ban wireless text messaging by drivers.
Harry Stoffer is a reporter for Automotive News, a sister publication to RCR Wireless News. Both publications are owned by Crain Communications Inc.
