Distracted Driving

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today launched “Faces of Distracted Driving,” an online video series exploring the tragic consequences of texting and cell phone use while driving.  The series features people from across the country who have been injured or lost loved ones in distracted driving crashes.  In 2009, nearly 5,500 people died and half a million were injured in accidents involving a distracted driver.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood responded today to a misleading report released by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), which questions the effectiveness of anti-texting while driving laws with respect to improving traffic safety. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and its affiliate, HLDI, have been working to discredit national anti-distracted driving efforts over the last year.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood kicked off the 2010 national Distracted Driving Summit today 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 twelve months. The Department of Transportation also released interim data this morning from its pilotenforcement campaigns in Hartford, Connecticut and Syracuse, New York, showing that its “Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other” enforcement efforts have already dramatically reduced distracted driving behavior in both cities.