US transport secretary highlights problem of distracted drivers

Date: 2/10/2009

Many car accidents in the US are caused by drivers talking on mobile phones or applying makeup.

The country's transport secretary Ray LaHood has suggested that as many as 6,000 people were killed on US roads in 2008 because of distracted drivers.

Noting some individual cases, Mr LaHood said: "Greg Zaffke from Chicago lost his mother when a driver who was painting her nails said she never saw the red light at the intersection."

Earlier this week, president Barack Obama signed an order that directed federal employees not to engage in text messaging when driving a government vehicle.

Mr LaHood added: "Let's show our friends and families that we can resist the temptation to answer the phone, send a message, or allow some other distraction to interfere with our driving."

He is urging Congress to consider the issue of distracted drivers and make sure that the problem is appropriately addressed.

According to research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 800,000 vehicles were driven in the US by someone using a mobile phone on any given day in 2008.

Dr Nick Reed, TRL Academy Fellow and Principal Consultant Human Factors, said: "TRL in partnership with the RAC Foundation, has conducted research examining the effects of texting on driver behaviour using the TRL high fidelity research driving simulator, CarSim (Reed & Robbins, TRL PPR367, 2008).

"The study demonstrated that participants’ driving behaviour when texting was impaired, particularly reaction time (35% slower when writing a text message) and the ability to maintain lateral vehicle control.

"While texting, participants slowed down significantly, indicating that they were aware of the distraction and potential risk and tried to compensate for it but the impairments observed indicate that these compensatory efforts were not successful."

Distracted driving was the subject of a recent US DOT Distracted Driving Summit. Follow the links for further information.

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