What do Oprah, the Department of Transportation, the Triple A, insurance companies and, state and federal legislators have in common?

The US Transportation Department recently proposed to forbid text messaging while driving by cross-state truck and bus drivers.  This regulatory action follows up on Transportation Department public service program to reduce distracted drivers that lead to accidents.

The proposal would make permanent an interim ban put in place at the beginning of the calendar year by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.  The proposed ban applies to drivers of passenger buses and commercial trucks operating vehicles weighing more than ten thousand pounds.  As an indication of the scope of the issue, violators could be facing civil penalities and/or even criminal penalties.

The United States Department of Transportation reported that 5,870 people were killed and over a half million were injured in 2008 in accidents involving distracted drivers.  The department didn’t speculate how many of those accidents were linked to cell phone.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration mirror the Transportation Department estimates with projection that around eighty percent of crashes are caused by driver distraction.  The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety is funding research to determine the extent of the distraction problem.  The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA)   states that driver inattention is a determining factor in many accidents, and mobile phone calls and texting are some of the most common driver distractions.

State legislators aren’t waiting for research reports and are passing new laws dealing with mobile phone use  and texting .  The Governors Highway Safety Association reports that twenty states plus Washington DC outlaw drivers of all types of vehicles from sending text messages when driving.  An additional nine states restricting texting by new drivers.  The remaining states are expected to implement the ban eventually.  But it is also widely recognized that the laws are not enough to stop the problem and technology is neede.  The GHSA purports to say it supports texting bans for all drivers, but has doubts about enforcement.

A leading company with a monitoring solution is Phone Beagle.  Their software installs on Android and BlackBerry mobile phones and monitors GPS location, and text messages along with other phone log activity.

The trucking and passenger bus industries support the text message prohibition, and many companies have explicit policies restricting texting when driving.  The government, industry and safety organizations all agree that driver distraction  caused bytexting is a menace to society, and deserves action.  Advocates for addressing the problem also include media powerhouse Oprah.  

Without question there are many distractions interfering with a driver focusing on driving:  fiddling with the radio or a putting in tape or CD, talking to passengers, rubber necking, and of course, using mobile phones and texting.  Navigational and other interactive devices also cause inattention.

As legislation and technology develop to address the issues a software package from  Phone Beagle is available to help deal with monitoring phone use.  PhoneBeagle installs on Android and BlackBerry cell phones and monitors GPS location, and text messages along with other call log events.