Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has chastised automakers for adding electronic gadgets that connect drivers to the Internet, let them check their Facebook “or do any number of other things instead of driving safely.”
LaHood made the remarks at Tuesday’s Distracted Driving Summit, a forum highlighting his department’s effort to combat the dangers posed when motorists text, talk on cell phones or engage in other distractions. He said the new technology could create a “cognitive distraction,” according to NPR, and said he would work with auto companies to develop safety guidelines.
LaHood also suggested that new cell phones could carry labels warning drivers not to use them while on the road, much like “the way we put warning labels on cigarettes.”
Wade Newton, spokesman for an alliance of major automakers, said improving safety behind the wheel requires addressing “the fact that we know drivers will do certain things while driving and how technology can make it safer.” Automakers have pushed voice-activated systems as a safer alternative to handheld devices.
Separately, the Transportation Department proposed expanding a federal ban on texting while driving to cover more hazardous waste haulers. Under a law that recently took effect, hazardous waste haulers and drivers of commercial buses and trucks engaged in interstate commerce already are barred from texting while behind the wheel. The new Transportation Department proposal, citing the authority of its Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, would extend the texting prohibition to intrastate hazardous waste haulers.
The Department of Labor is also joining the anti-distracted driving effort. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced a campaign to discourage texting while driving, promising to step up efforts by her department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to crack down on employers who require texting while driving.
