DATA COLLECTION, BROADER DISTRACTIONS FOCUS OF CELLPHONE FORUM
Pivotal role that cellphones played in aftermath of Sept. 11 attacks may slow down state legislative proposals next year that would restrict wireless phone use while driving, some participants told Washington conference Wed. “Next year, we will have some legislation -- the question is how much,” said Matt Sundeen, senior policy specialist for National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). NCSL forum on driver focus and technology has met this week as part of winter NCSL meeting in Washington. Several months ago, state legislation taking aim at cellphone use in cars looked like it had more momentum as part of broader backlash by some frustrated with cellphone use in public places such as restaurants or movie theaters, Sundeen said: “When cellphones played such a key role in what happened Sept. 11, a lot of that backlash has vanished.” Still, more bills restricting cellphone use on roads are passing at local level. “It puts some pressure on legislatures to do something at the state level,” he said. Among changes that appear to be emerging in bills are that more center on driver distractions in general, not just mobile phone use, and on improved data collection, Sundeen and others said.
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Sept. 11 has focused attention on beneficial use of cellphones, which in short term could redirect state lawmakers’ attention to other issues, said Charles Hurley, vp-transportation safety group of National Safety Council. But concern over liability is poised to be real driver of issue of roadway cellphone use, rather than federal or even state legislation, he said. Concern is liability that companies may face if their employees are using cellphones in cars for work purposes. Some employees are beginning to quietly ban that workplace practice, Hurley said.
One theme that emerged repeatedly in meeting was that more and better research was needed to document risks to driver attention posed by cellphones and other distractions. Barbara Harsha, exec. dir.-National Assn. of Governors’ Highway Safety Representatives (NAGHSR), said her group had adopted new policy that viewed driver distractions more broadly than just cellphone use. Policy states that all drivers should be discouraged from using cellphones, faxes and other electronic devices except to report emergencies. “Our message is a no-use message,” she said. But she said NAGHSR didn’t support bills that would impose ban on hand- held phones unless hands-free devices were used. There’s not enough research to support effectiveness of that type of mandate, she said. Harsha also said NAGHSR would take key role in working with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Federal Highway Administration in revising national model for uniform crash criteria reporting. “We will definitely be considering whether cellphone data should be collected by the states,” she said: “State crash data are important but there are limitations on that data. We know there is tremendous under reporting.” More also needs to be done with research on impact of new devices in autos, said Jason Coney of ITS America. His group will be looking at research guidelines in that area such as those issued by Society of Automotive Engineers and will be providing advice to Transportation Dept. later this year, he said.
Several participants said they were monitoring whether recently passed N.Y. law for hands-free operation of wireless phones in cars, first state bill of its kind in U.S., could serve as template for other state action. But Pa. Joint State Govt. Commission issued staff report this week that dismissed need for any such mandate now. Existing research doesn’t yet point to need for regulatory or statutory restriction on specific driver distractions, report said. It recommended that Pa. Transportation Dept. “routinely collect” data on distractions that contributed to vehicle crashes. “It is evident that the great threat posed by driver distractions is from the aggregate of those distractions,” report said. N.Y. cellphone restrictions on drivers might be enforceable, Pa. report said, but it called them “ineffective” solution. Citing Pa. crash statistics for 1999 and 2000, report said conversations between drivers and other passengers “caused approximately twice as many distractions leading to crashes as cellphones, so that a ban of wireless conversations doesn’t seem promising when personal conversations with other occupants would presumably remain unabated.”
Several states are beginning studies of driver distraction issues related to crash causes, with changes in some cases coming from administrative rules rather than new laws, Sundeen said. La., N.J. and Va. legislatures passed such bills, he said. “We have a number of states that are beginning to study this issue and a number of states that are beginning to track crashes, so we are starting to accumulate some knowledge on this topic,” he said. In 1999, 15 states had bills on cellphone safety, with figure rising to 27 in 2000 and 43 this year, he said. He said 35 state legislatures considered bills that would require hands-free use of phones in cars.