News tagged with 'Distracted Drivers'

Distracted drivers can include airline pilots and now those at the helm of NWA Flight 188 have lost their pilots' license after missing the airport by 150 miles.

A conference on distracted drivers begins in Washington Wednesday, and truckers are sure to square off with safety advocates over computers in the cab.

Legislation introduced Wednesday would withhold federal highway funds from states that do not ban texting while driving, known to be more distracting than driving under the influence. States would lose 25 percent of the federal highway funds, until the funds were depleted, if they failed to enact the ban.  

The National Safety Council is advocating a total ban on cell phone use while driving, saying it is dangerous and leads to fatalities. A study by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis estimates cell phone use while driving accounts for 6 percent or 636,000 of all automobile crashes, 330,000 injuries and 2,600 deaths in the U.S. every year.

In a federal lawsuit filed on December 1, Public Citizen claims that records showing the connection of driver cell phone use and traffic fatalities are being withheld from the public by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Emerging technology stops cell phone calls coming in while you drive. The software senses you are in motion and retains your calls and text messages for later. It has immediate application for parents, but also corporations that want to cut down on the thousands of highway deaths each year due to inattention.