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Safety group to propose crackdown on driver distractions

WASHINGTON — Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety said Tuesday it will hold a news conference Thursday morning to announce a sweeping nationwide proposal to address cell phone talking, texting and other distractions experienced by truck, bus and large passenger van operators throughout the U.S.

“Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety is a national leader on commercial motor vehicle safety issues and is alarmed by the growing use of electronic devices by motor vehicle operators,” the group said in announcing the news conference. “About 5,000 people are killed and 100,000 are injured annually in crashes with large trucks. Trucks are only 3 percent of registered vehicles, but are involved in 12 percent of all traffic fatalities.”

Federal data also shows that up to 75 percent of fatal crashes involving large trucks and passenger cars are the fault of passenger car driver.

The advocacy group said that numerous studies have found that the crash risk for drivers using cell phones is substantially increased compared to drivers not using cell phones.

“For example, a Virginia Tech study, the first to investigate the effects on crash risk of reading and sending text messages, found that texting increased the risk of a safety-critical driving event for truck drivers by 23.2 times,” the group said in a media release. “An observational study in 2006 found that drivers using cell phones failed to stop at stop signs 10 times more often than drivers not observed using cell phones.”

Participating in the news conference will be Jacqueline Gillan, vice president of the advocacy group; Jerry Donaldson, the group’s senior research director; Henry Jasny, the group’s general counsel; and Elissa and Jamie Schee of Ocala, Fla., whose daughter Frances “Margay” Schee, 13, was killed Sept. 23, 2008, when a tractor trailer rammed into the back of a stopped school bus with lights flashing, resulting in the vehicles catching fire.

The truck driver’s cell phone use was a contributing factor in the fatal crash, the group said.

Barb Kampbell of The Trucker staff can be reached for comment at [email protected].

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