Cut Off Highway Funds to States Without Anti-Texting Rules, Klobuchar Says
Sen. Amy Klobuchar Tuesday called for legislation that would deny federal highway dollars to states unless they approve rules against texting while driving. Klobuchar spoke at the Department of Transportation’s second distracted driving summit. Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the department was proposing new rules aimed at cellphone use by truck drivers transporting hazardous materials. In June, the Senate Commerce Committee approved the Distracted Driving Prevention Act (S-1938), which gives grants to states that ban text messaging while driving and would require the Secretary of Transportation to issue regulations on the use of wireless devices by commercial vehicle drivers.
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Klobuchar said the bill doesn’t go far enough. “It’s more of a carrot approach,” she said. “I also believe a stick approach would be nice, which would mean limiting federal highway dollars” to states that don’t approve rules. That approach worked in getting states to adopt 0.08 percent blood alcohol levels across the U.S. as the legal limit for driving, she said. Klobuchar compared texting while driving to playing Russian Roulette: “No text message is worth dying for.”
LaHood said rules banning commercial bus and truck drivers from texting on the job and restricting train operators from using cellphones and other electronic devices while in the driver’s seat, proposed at last year’s summit, became final Tuesday. DOT also released a new proposed rulemaking prohibiting commercial truck drivers from use of all electronic devices while transporting hazardous materials.
"This has become a personal crusade for me,” LaHood said. “While it’s one thing to hear from researchers, academics and law enforcement officials, it’s another to hear from the parents, children and siblings of people who were needlessly killed.” LaHood said distracted driving remains an “epidemic,” since “everyone has a cellphone and everyone thinks they can use it while driving. You all know this."
There is “no bigger distraction” for drivers than making a call or texting while driving, LaHood said. The U.S. government needs to target texting and calling while driving with the same vehemence it used to take on drunken driving and driving without a seat belt, he said. “Law enforcement arrests people, they put them in jail for drunk driving, and they lose their driving privileges,” he said. “We're right at the starting gate on distracted driving. … We need good laws. We need good enforcement. We need public education.”
LaHood was particularly critical of automakers adding technologies to vehicles that let drivers update their Facebook page or surf the Web “or do any number of other things instead of driving safely.” The message to the public has to be: “Buckle up -- put the cellphone and the BlackBerry in the glove compartment,” he said.
"The American public is truly beginning to recognize the very real dangers posed by cellphones and other distractions behind the wheel,” said Peter Appel, administrator of DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration. Appel said five states, Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Island have banned the use of all handheld devices while driving. Some 30 states have banned texting while behind the wheel.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said employers who require texting behind the wheel violate the Occupational Safety and Health Act. “It is imperative that employers eliminate financial or other incentives that encourage workers to text while driving,” she said.