U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood kicked off the 2010 national Distracted Driving Summit on Tuesday, Sept. 21, by announcing new anti-distracted driving regulations for drivers transporting hazardous materials, commercial truck and bus drivers, and rail operators, and by identifying more than 550 U.S. companies – employing 1.5 million people nationwide – that have committed to enacting anti-distracted driving employee policies in the next 12 months.
The Department of Transportation also released interim data from its pilot enforcement campaigns in Hartford, Conn., and Syracuse, N.Y., showing that its “Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other” enforcement efforts already have dramatically reduced distracted driving behavior in both cities.
LaHood announced that he is initiating a new rulemaking to prohibit commercial truck drivers from texting while transporting hazardous materials. In addition, LaHood announced that two rules proposed at last year’s summit now have become the law of the land. Rules banning commercial bus and truck drivers from texting on the job and restricting train operators from using cell phones and other electronic devices while in the driver’s seat have been posted.
“We are taking action on a number of fronts to address the epidemic of distracted driving in America,” LaHood says. “With the help of the experts, policymakers and safety advocates we’ve assembled here, we are going to do everything we can to put an end to distracted driving and save lives.”
DOT also has been working with the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety to engage the private sector to promote anti-distracted driving policies in the workplace. NETS, which was created by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is an employer-led public-private partnership dedicated to improving the safety and health of employees by preventing traffic crashes.
DOT and NETS announced that almost 1,600 U.S. companies and organizations have adopted distracted driving policies to date, covering about 10.5 million workers nationwide. An additional 550 organizations have committed to adopting policies that will cover another 1.5 million employees within the next 12 months.
