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July 9, 2010

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood strongly criticized a lobbying campaign on July 7 which he said would grossly undermine his year-long work to limit drivers' use of mobile phones, smartphones and other electronic devices while behind the wheel, especially as it relates to texting while driving.

LaHood was actually responding to a document prepared by a Washington lobbying firm in June that sought to redirect a national debate on distracted driving in the United States.

The document argued that the issue had been "hijacked" by celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, leaving the auto and wireless technology industries as collateral damage in the discussion.

LaHood, who last year has aggressively pushed for stronger restrictions on distracted driving, which is blamed for an estimated 6,000 deaths and over half-a-million injuries a year in the U.S. said "I was greatly surprised to read that anybody would organize activities against safe driving. I simply can't believe that people would think that."

The document outlined a few plans to recruit numerous technology, automotive and insurance companies to its coalition, including Motorola, Nokia, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Allstate, Geico, Nationwide and a few others.

LaHood called it an attempt to "rile up the electronics industry and derail our coalition altogether. This is totally unacceptable, he said."

Babak Zafarnia, a spokesman for the Seward Square Group, said the proposed coalition was "no longer being pursued" because the group's goal of expanding the debate to include other common forms of driver distraction had been met (!) (?)

The document was prepared by the Seward Square Group, a Washington lobbying firm, and said a "benign debate about teens and texting has morphed into a full-throttle assault on mobile technology."

It proposed the creation of a group called the DRIVE coalition to improve public safety, modernize driver education and promote enforcement of laws and driver education "as the solution to distracted driving."

The document went on to say that the public face of the group would have been Jim Hall, a former head of the National Transportation Safety Board, who serves as a counsel to the Seward lobbying group.

Hall, at a news conference organized by LaHood, said he had not approved the document and said it contained "very inappropriate language."

Hall added that he would have no involvement in the group because it had mischaracterized his views.

LaHood held a summit in the U.S. on distracted driving last year and has joined with Winfrey to urge people not to use their phones or MIDs (mobile Internet devices) while behind the wheel.

The Barack Obama administration has prohibited federal employees from texting while driving on government business and banned commercial truck and bus drivers from texting behind the wheel earlier this year.

In all, thirty states and the District of Columbia prohibit drivers from texting behind the wheel. Eight states have since passed laws prohibiting drivers from using hand-held cell phones while driving, while permitting hands-free devices and Bluetooth apparatus.

Additionally, Congress is strongly considering federal legislation to push all states to ban texting by drivers and LaHood said he plans to hold another summit in Washington later this year.

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Source: The U.S. Transport Department.