the hearing will come to order good morning to everyone we convened today a joint hearing of the subcommittee on communications and the subcommittee on consumer protection both subcommittees of the house committee on energy and and our subject is consideration of safety issues associated with drivers distracted by wireless and other electronic communications devices i want to acknowledge and express appreciation for the excellent cooperation of chairman rush of the consumer protection subcommittee and his fine staff as we made preparations for today's hearing by prior arrangement i'll be chairing the first portion of the hearing and ross well the chair of the balance the national highway traffic safety administration estimates that twenty five percent of accidents involve some form of driver distraction resulting in five thousand eight hundred seventy deaths more than five hundred thousand injuries in a recent year texting while driving would appear to be alarmingly prevalent with twenty one percent of drivers in a recent survey indicating that they have done so within the last month among the less experienced teen drivers that number more doubles to forty six percent and fifty one percent of those teen drivers admitting to cell phone use while driving the use of electronic devices while driving imperils not only the distracted drivers but all the highway users those who are not distracted are victims of crashes that are caused by those who are we are interested in learning this morning whether the problem is sufficiently agreed that a federal legislative response is now required and if that response is in fact now required what should that response be some states have laws prohibiting the use of handheld cell phones by all drivers twenty one states and the district of columbia ban all xylophone used by novice drivers including both handheld and hands free phones eighteen states and the district of columbia prohibits text messaging by all drivers and we're interested in learning how effective these laws have been and whether our witnesses believe that the time has arrived for federal legislation that practically would ban some or all of these practices perhaps by withholding federal highway funds or some portion thereof from states that do not adopt to the federally recommended prohibitions there's also a public a sufficient federal role for education and the wireless industry has launched a campaign to educate the public about the dangers of distracted driving is it time for the federal government to expand beyond these privately funded education koski of the f c c has suggested that an aggressive public education campaign somewhat similar to the highly successful blog that recently promoted the digital television transition i look forward to hearing his comments this morning on how such a campaign could be structured including the respective roles of the public and private sectors and just thoughts about how effective such a campaign might be other suggestions from our witnesses for an appropriate federal response to the problem would be welcome as well finally this morning i want to point out the excellence that has been achieved by virginia tech's transportation institute and weighting the safety issues associated with driver distraction and inattention tom dingo says the institute's director and he is one of our witnesses on the second panel this morning tom will be discussing with us the pioneering work that he and the virginia tech institute have accomplished in the use of naturalistic driving studies through which sophisticated instrumentation is installed in vehicles for the continuous monitoring of driver behavior and performance mr dingell has mr dingoes as widely acknowledged in national expertise on the use of naturalistic driving observation having twenty five years of experience in the field and having authored more than forty books one hundred fifty technical publications and twenty major widely read reports on the subject i congratulate mr dentists for the advances in the field that he and the virginia tech transportation institute have achieved and we will look forward to hearing his testimony along with that of our other witnesses this morning that concludes my opening statement at this time i am pleased to recognize the ranking republican on our welcome all of you and taking your time to be with us and i thank chairman rush for his participation for holding this timely hearing the fundamental question i guess is how do we address a very real safety issue concerning drivers that simply are distracted by electronic communication devices the big question is is legislation needed is regulation needed or would a real robust educational campaign be sufficient take care of the problem so i look forward to our hearings in the palace and as new technologies continue to flourish we are more and more distracted in our lives this is especially true get behind the wheel of a car distraction caused by cell phone text messaging while driving creases the risk of accidents twenty three point two percent times in comparison to normal driving that's according to the virginia tech transportation institute report the report also points out that texting took drivers focus away from the road for an average of almost five seconds enough time the report pointed out to travel a length of a football field at fifty five mph furthermore according to a study sixty one percent of in risky behavior while driving of that sixty one percent forty six percent of teens admitted to sending or reading text messages while driving at fifty one percent talk on cell phones while driving now other studies cite t use of a wireless device as a number one source of driver inattention along with drunk driving the use of electronic devices is becoming the biggest threat to driver safety especially among our teenagers these numbers are staggering so the question now becomes what do we do about it the first and perhaps most important step is education in my opinion in september two thousand and nine the wireless industry in partnership with the national safety council they launched eighteen focused education campaign to provide parents and teens with information on the dangers of distracted driving as part of the campaign a television public service announcement and web we're developed to remind teens and novice drivers that when they're on the road be off the phone the p s a is the latest in a series of educational efforts undertaken by the industry dating back nearly a decade the industry has distributed the public service announcement to more than six hundred television stations across this country the wireless industry should be commended for their ongoing educational efforts furthermore federal state and local governments are getting involved i commend secretary la hood for convening the distracted driving summit last month and the f c c chairman janet caskey for committing to hold a distracted driving workshop in the coming weeks i hope that this is just the beginning of the government's educational efforts but more obviously  can be done for example local school districts need to encourage driver's education teachers to spend more time talking about the dangers of using a cellphone or fiddling with an i pod while driving local auto club civic organizations and p can get involved as a good to help fight drunk driving this need not this need not be a government run education program however will education be enough to stem the tide of dangerous driving habits a growing number of states are adding laws to combat this problem eighteen states in fact and the district of columbia already have passed laws making texting while driving illegal and seven states in the district have banned driving while talking on a handheld cell phone if the states are going to pass their own safety laws question would be does the federal government need to enact laws as well i'd prefer at first to allow the states to address the issue without a federal mandate or withholding of federal transportation funds one legislative proposal that has been mentioned would penalize states by holding withholding twenty five percent of the federal highway funds if stage is not in the act a law prohibiting drivers from writing reading or sending text messages while driving in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight in order to promote seatbelt use congress opted instead to incentivize states to annex seat belt laws congress created to grant programs to encourage increased the use of seat belts and child safety seats and to encourage states to increase seatbelt use rate while this approach may be better i do not believe the federal government to have an all out federal program at this time but i look forward to hearing our witnesses and more on this subject the thank you mr chairman i look forward to questioning some of these witnesses on this important subject thank you thank you very much mr stern the gentle lady from a good friends of the house having served here as a member of the house and also a staffer in the house i think i'm come from the common sense end of the spectrum i think everyone should follow traffic signals and the rules of the road i think drivers should not be distracted by using electronic devices it ought to go without saying the driver should not have their eyes focused on an electronic device to be reading a message or texting anyone every state has laws to deal with reckless driving problems and some like california have a stricter regime for dealing with electronic devices in my state no one is permitted to text while driving or using a hand held phone and drivers under eighteen may not use any electronic device at all the new york times has been publishing an ongoing series about the use of electronic devices and distracted driving a recent article described the british method of enhanced penalties for dealing with electronically distracted drivers and told the sad story of a young woman who killed someone very much like herself while texting so i think that some attempts to educate drivers have backfired as another new york times article noted it seems that young people laugh off the scare films about this and often see themselves as invincible one article in the new york times series that i found particularly troubling  counted the experiences of truck drivers they're not kids and they're not inexperienced drivers they're people who should know better but it's become common practice for long haul drivers to use full scale computer terminals when driving  virginia tech transportation institute found that truckers using onboard computers face a ten times greater risk of crashing nearly crashing or wandering from their lane so we're not just dealing with te phones or similar devices we have an epidemic of electronic distraction let's consider the problem of g p s systems which are specifically designed for drivers when a driver reprograms the device while barreling down the freeway at sixty five mph that activity can be just as dangerous as sending a text message that we need to make laws even handed and inclusive it makes no sense to require hands free phones if someone has to dial a number i can be the momentary distraction that can and lives i look forward to hearing from our distinguished witnesses obviously electronic devices are here to stay and my guess is that we move into fourth generation wireless device s this problem can only worsen thank you mr chairman thank you very much ms issue the gentleman from california mr radanovich the ranking member of the consumer protection subcommittee is recognized for five minutes thank you mr chairman appreciate you calling today's hearing on distracted driving i was speaking a little bit earlier but i was a little bit distracted on my blackberry and i put it down now so i'm focused but there's no doubt that drivers need to be attentive when driving their vehicles over thirty seven thousand people die on our roads as a result of auto accidents in two thousand and eight and although the number is quite large the good news is that it's significantly lower than the number of fatalities in two thousand and seven we have seen improvements in vehicle safety and we've lowered the overall rate of auto related deaths through multiple approaches technology improvements that enhance vehicle safety education campaigns to lower the incidence of drinking and driving and greater enforcement of existing laws including seatbelt laws these improvements have all been accomplished with a combination of public private partnerships as well as through cooperation between the states and federal government and should be examined as a potential approach in reducing distracted driving nonetheless there is no single cure to preventing the tragic loss of life on our roads that is inevitable every year a car as it is a several thousand pound instrument that can travel at great speed on the highway and needs to be regarded with respect for its capability to cause serious injury or death with one movement of driver error even the best technology such as lifesaving airbags is generally limited to those inside the vehicle and cannot save pedestrians or unprotected passengers addressing the root causes of accidents and seeking to prevent them is good public policy we continue to battle a never ending fight over alcohol impaired driving which is the most serious factor affecting highway deaths the current topic of distracted driving is not new cell phone use has been a growing fixture for more than a decade and has been in the public debate regarding its effect on driving for nearly as long as we do how we do it efficiently and effectively is but another question many states have responded with handsfree requirements for drivers that use cell phones while operating their vehicle i'm interested in how those efforts have affected driver behavior and whether their experiences are relevant to the latest concern texting while driving again a growing number of states have as traditional role of writing the laws governing driver behavior with respect to texting and enacting various laws to ban the practice i'm sure no one here supports the notion that taking your eyes off the road is a good idea nor that we want to be driving down the road when another driver isn't watching the road changing driver behavior to avoid distractions and focus on driving is the core issue of what we are addressing here today given that texting is disproportionately conducted by younger drivers who  grown up with this technology the risks associated with texting while driving will only increase as the population most likely to tax actually becomes a larger percentage of drivers on our roads i believe that we should allow the states to continue to act in this area and supplement their efforts where we can with a public private education campaign ultimately as we have discovered in other laws congress has sought to force upon the states to enact it will depend in large part on effective enforcement and whether enforcement and education are sufficient deterrents to alter behavior early evidences suggest it's difficult to enforce a complete ban on cell phones as many users will switch to hands free devices that are difficult to detect similarly funds available to provide for increased enforcement is a luxury that most states and the federal government do not enjoy particularly when weighed against competing priorities to improve driver safety such as effort to curb drunk driving finally as many of us are many of our panelists will probably agree in force when alone is not the solution i have a number of questions about how we can use existing state laws combined with public private education campaigns to improve deterrence and whether such efforts will be effective according to testimony it's unclear whether the frequency of crashes in states that have an active band has actually been lowered when compared to crash data prior to the ban so the evidence should be substantiated before a ban is considered as a solution if we want to improve safety i'm equally interested in exploring how technology can be used to improve safety and discuss the specific applications being a being developed to address the use of devices while driving the technology that has made our lives much easier and made us more productive may also hold potential to mitigate many of the risks associated with the same devices finally one aspect that i rarely hear discuss related to all driver safety issues but which i believe is relevant is the level of qualifications of the driver i believe the states i believe in states rights to qualify and license their residents to drive a vehicle but i think at some point we should discuss whether the bar is set appropriately to test for competency or whether we should be encouraging the states to reexamine their approach to issuing driver's licenses thank you mr chairman thank you very much mr don the gentleman from georgia mr barrow is recognized for two minutes i thank the chair the chairman to set the table by pretty much setting for the real purposes of this hearing today one is to raise awareness of the problem and it is a real problem and second to explore whether or not a federal response is appropriate to this problem and if so what is the best response the federal  level on the issue of raising awareness of the problem quite a lot of folks have thought inflected a great deal on practice is what other folks do and i can't help but think that one of the real insidious aspects of this problem is the incredible disconnect between what folks are doing what they expect what they're feeling while they're doing it if someone is impaired because they're under the influence of alcohol they know that they're impaired denying what you will say what you will anybody who is imperative because they've had too much  drink knows it doesn't is not having a positive impact on as a subjective matter they know their risk to the extent the think about it all but you take somebody to run down the road and they're text messaging the subjective experience is the exact opposite here people are doing two very complicated things at once and it sort of exhilarating in a way the reason why folks do it sometimes it just to show they can do it it's an insidious aspect of this problem that the object effects of being impaired by distraction electronic devices is insofar as the rest concerned exactly the same as the impact of being impaired is of the under the influence of alcohol insofar as the way your car behaves there's no difference but the subjective experience the person who's doing it is the exact opposite that's one thing i think that gets a lot of people doing this and adds to our problem trying to trying to figure out what the right solution is as far as appropriate level of federal response and i don't know what that is but i know this i want to commend the obama administration secretary la hood in particular for setting a good example the federal government is a contributor to the problem to the extent we've got rolling stock in people on the road but it's also setting a good example to or a bad example an administration has set a good example by making sure that as far as federal employees are concerned we're going to observe the highest and best standards and bandies practice  the leading by example and i look forward to any contribution you all have to make as to what the proper response is beyond that thank you thank you mr barrow the gentleman from illinois mr shimkus is recognized for two minutes famous chairman i'll be brief we will be watching for that second panel steve largent a former colleague of this committee i want to welcome you and i have distracted driving is bad i'm on the record that distracted driving is r john a lady from california is recognized for two minutes thank you chairman thank you chair about your and also chairman rush for calling today's joint hearing was your leadership addressing this very important issue i'd also like and my former colleague secretary la hood for being here this morning it is very important that we examine the safety issues caused by drivers who are distracted by communication devices with more than two hundred seventy million cell phone subscribers most americans rely on wireless devices to communicate with their family their friends and for business purposes recent studies have shown that about four out of five cellphone owners make calls while driving and nearly one of five sent messages several states including my home state of california have banned texting on the use of handheld phones while driving such prohibitions have not deterred enough motorists and using such devices or prevent accidents as a result in california we have a number of tragic incidents involving cell phones or texting last year's tragic commuter train incident or accident in which the operator was texting and twenty five people died a current study by car and driver magazine indicated that texting poses a greater threat than driving under the influence that being said i'm pleased that the administration as well as a wireless industry are taking on this issue i applaud the  here i think we all understand that every car wreck is caused by distraction whether it's the momentary flash of going over in your mind your opening statement missing the stop sign or two highly dangerous yet becoming all too common actions texting while driving or drinking while driving i think it's appropriate that we have the discussion here well maybe not here but at least nationally have discussions hearing today i think that sometimes we very weary of the long arm of the federal government telling us what we can and cannot do and we are at the same time very concerned about what we see as the distraction that is who they are from utensils and innovations and gadgets and items in our cars  distract us from watching the road and keeping both hands on the wheel of where we're going to move with this and where my questioning will move with you all looking at where the public education responsibility is in if there is something that is needed there for education or not and mr chairman i'm going to really be interested in your comments on public education i'm always pleased to see an item where we can agree and where we can focus our energies together so i'm going to be interested in your in your comments and i applaud all the industries the gentleman from pennsylvania mr murphy is recognized for two minutes vehicle in front of us with a turn signal on swayer swerving lane to lane no one could pass us because none of us were quite clear what's going on this vehicle eventually exit off a ramp and i could glance over and see the driver no hands on the wheel hands on eyes were not even on the road i'm surprised the driver did not end up in the potomac river unfortunately an all too common scene that we see and one that in many times ended up with tragic consequences with auto accidents and  of all ages we have that's one of the many concerns we have obviously a form of transportation is deeply concerned about the things that contribute to that whether it's a parent trying to school their child in the back seat or buckle someone up when they should have done those things before the car was moving to changing channels on the radio to putting makeup on in the car saving reaching for something underneath all those are dangerous practice and all those that we need to be paying attention to but in this particular case the issue of technology and how none of us can cut tether to communicate with our officers or other people somehow is that all of these things are life and death matters i'm looking forward to hearing any solution to this of what can be done all of us at times have been guilty of doing this i think all of us need to be paying better attention to using the internet and this new dui is something that obviously is a combination of the jurisdictions of the two gentleman sitting here today the jurisdiction of the federal communications commission and chairman janet he has created this anytime anywhere communications capability but it is now being applied over to secretary la hood jurisdiction trains planes and automobiles and over there we see pilots using computers laptops and missing their missing their airport by one hundred fifty miles subway operators who are texting when they should be looking at the next stop our truck drivers who have their computers in their laps while they're out with eighteen wheelers out on the highway so this is clearly a huge issue now in a previous generation we would we would wind up mandating  mandating airbags trying to use technologies to protect against the deficiencies that existed in the old technology of the automotive technology so that we can protect passengers  mothers against drunk driving would come along and they would urge a public education campaign so that we would discover that kind of behavior i think what we have to do here is to try to find  and secretary la hood jurisdictions and i'll bring to our attention we thank you both of you for your working for your work on this issue thank you thank you very much mr markey the gentleman from louisiana mr schoolies is recognized for two minutes thank you m chairman with the technological advancements in wireless and electronic communications we're now enjoying greater use of our cell phones and are communicating in ways never imagined these advancements include hands free devices as well as vehicles with built in phones both of which have improved our ability to communicate but even with all of these advances drivers still face countless distractions when behind the wheel mr chairman i appreciate the importance of this issue and i'm glad that we're discussing safety and health of the american people however i do regret that we're not here today discussing the single biggest health care issue in our country the one thousand nine hundred ninety page government takeover of health care that will likely be voting on in the next week our committee has yet to have a hearing on the recently filed bill that will jeopardize health care for the vast majority of americans nor we had the opportunity to ask direct questions about the bill to health and human services secretary sebelius the very cabinet official who will oversee this trillion dollar government run takeover of health care mr chairman speaker pelosi is latest bill spends over one trillion dollars on a government takeover while adding seven hundred billion dollars in new taxes on families and small businesses in opposing five hundred billion in cuts to medicare and even worse changes are still being written behind closed doors where speaker pelosi and the democrats run g congress are brokering deals and employing budget gimmicks to conceal the true cost of the bill which led the wall street journal earlier this week to call the new health care bill the worst bill ever quote and decried the massive taxes spending and what the wall street journal called quote dishonest accounting this is all being done at the expense of the american people who have this legislation is an act that will face ration care lower quality higher premiums and hundreds of billions in new taxes at a time when our kind of me can least afford it including a new health care is r and on present and a government control of medical care mr chairman again let me say i think it is a disservice to the american people if we do not hold a formal hearing on the one thousand nine hundred ninety page government takeover of health care that speaker pelosi filed this week and we may be voting on the next week i would like to welcome our witnesses here today and i yield back thank you very much mr scully's the gentleman from washington state mr ensley is recognized for two minutes thank you obviously if you look at the numbers the amount of number of americans killed by distraction big seeds september eleventh every year this is obviously a serious issue appreciate the chair having this committee the one thing i hope we look at  e that is i think where we may be heading is a way to try to reduce the first two but the cognitive is one that's going to be something that i think americans want to maintain the right to talk to people in their car and i suspect they're going to want to maintain their right to talk to people out of their car once we can give them hands free systems that do not physically track him for using their hands or visually detract from using their eyes and i suspect that's where we're going to end up i'll be very interested in any of the testimony trying to distinguish the source and nature of that distraction that allow this technology move forward thank you thank you mr emsley the gentleman from ohio mr space is recognized for two minutes thank you mr chairman and like to thank chairman rush ranking members of the chair and stearns as well as our witnesses here mr chairman i was just secretary welcome and thank you for  today and for your attention to this issue which is of considerable concern i have two kids who are both college age and i have to say i'm alarmed and struck by the findings  and your anticipated testimony and just how dangerous texting is specifically for young people and i can't imagine losing a family member to a distracted driver as mr teeter has  but certainly i hope that our work here today will help bring attention to and help us come up with some solutions for this pressing problem i cover while and how does not have a law banning texting or even using a think we've made some significant progress there what i think we have to do is balance out what some of our colleagues have referred to today as state's rights with what i believe to be a compelling the for public represents attractive no i only ask that when these issues are considered we factor in the needs of rural america as well we spend a lot more time in our cars than they ohio is recognized for two minutes thank you mr chairman and thank you for holding today's hearing on this issue that is clearly affecting so many lives throughout nation distracted drivers we've all seen the drivers on the phone next to us and we've all been stuck behind a driver who fails to see the light is turned green and and it's because they're sending a text or the other day i was behind a driver who failed to move when the light turned green and as she turned i saw that she was holding a bowl of food a bowl of food that she was eating at the same time she was driving some of us have known someone whose life has been disrupted because of a distracted driver and trends in technology have only added to the number of distractions facing our drivers and so there is growing concern about the risks associated with drivers use of cell phones and internet technologies texting and other devices that are brought into vehicles and the use of these devices does pose a serious safety risk not only for driver obviously but for other drivers and pedestrians and passengers and cyclists and not too long ago my husband who was walking our dog on a quiet neighborhood was hit by a car by a distracted driver and although he wasn't badly injured it was certainly a wake up call and it was pretty startling and if my dog he probably would have been killed and then there would have been a lot of problems so we says held a summit also to explore ways to prevent texting while driving and i'm interested in hearing from the witnesses today from researchers and safety advocates in the industry and the administration about how we should pursue this very complicated problem of distracted driving and what we need to do to prevent and guard against the poor safety resolves that occur when we allow distracted drivers to persist and  poses to families all across america it's a big problem in my home state of florida and they are there are many sad stories from all across the country but one that hit home  in st petersburg florida where a young man named davened is one was working he checked out of work got in his truck left he realized that he forgot to clock out and as he  was preparing to turn around his cell phone went off he reached down to get it at the same time he didn't realize he barreled right into a tanker truck and the tanker had eighty five hundred gallons of gasoline in it   and just the statistics for two thousand and seven in florida two thousand floridians died due to distracted driving florida does not have a law banning cell phone use while driving or texting unlike many other states and the district of columbia this may explain partly why we while we have so many deaths on our highways last year the state legislature had a big knockdown drag out fight over this tried to pass a law but they were unable to come to an agreement i hope they'll revisit it and i hope we can we can examine and solutions here i'd also like to make a public p parents to set a good example for their kids when they drive their children in the car they need to be sure that they are not unnecessarily on their cell phone and are not texting themselves so the kids learn the right habits there's a long history in the body of inforcing national highway safety standards by using them as conditions for highway funding that is the method by which we raise the drinking age to twenty one that for convening this joint hearing on a compelling topic driver distraction stemming from the use of wireless another technological devices is a risk we all face and every mode of transportation has drivers passengers pedestrians and for many as parents just recently we all read about two commercial pilots who lost track of time and overshot the minneapolis airport by one hundred fifty miles because they were busy looking at personal computers thankfully the passengers on that trip arrived safely the same cannot be said for the twenty five commuter rail passengers who were killed in september two thousand and eight in my congressional district with a metrolink train a commuter train and a freight train collided head on in chatsworth california while that chatsworth crash remains under investigation the national transportation safety board has focused in part on dozens of cell phone text messages received and sent by the metrolink engineer up to twenty two seconds before the crash today's hearing focuses on drivers use of devices built in or brought into the passenger vehicles secretary la hood i want to thank you for your leadership and vision in recognizing the scope of this problem and organizing the recent distracted driving summit i particularly want to commend you for your role in working with president o an executive order barring executive branch employees from texting while driving it affects millions of federal workers and demonstrates his administration's commitment to this issue your continued focus will be essential for keeping up that momentum and i also want to thank and commend chairman to the koski of the f c c for offering the expertise of his agency to inform the committee about where technology is headed and what the  communications industry can do to problem to promote responsible use of these devices your testimony gives us the opportunity to better stand the research legislative educational and technological solutions that are available to address distracted driving and save lives on our roads and highways and while my next comment does not pertain to the subject at today's hearing this is the first time i've seen you since the release of the notice of proposed rule making fo preserving the open internet and i want to take this opportunity to compliment you on the process you are using for this rulemaking and for your commitment to data driven decision making as you know i'm a proponent of strong net neutrality rules and i believe we're going to get a better rule as a result of your open and thoughtful approach i also want to thank our second panel of experts including david teeter from the national safety council who brings the unique perspective of a parent who tragically lost his twelve year old son joe to a driver who ran a red light while distracted by a phone conversation and i'm sorry for his loss and i hope our work here today will prevent future tragedies driving innovation to the technology sector is generating robust consumer demand for portable music video texting phone g p s and internet capabilities the increasing availability of bluetooth wife signals and voice activated systems to enable these devices  cars forces us to consider the challenges and opportunities these technologies may pose for safe driving there is disagreement among researchers and among our panelists as to how and whether distraction from these technologies can be effectively measured and minimize one key outstanding question is whether hands free devices already that handheld and whether hands free laws have a positive impact on driver safety new research and development today including an upcoming two thousand car naturalistic driving study offers an unprecedented opportunity to resolve some of these disputes strong research is essential for me forming public policy i believe we're at a critical juncture that requires an all hands on deck approach all hands on the steering wheel approach from government industry academics and the driving public what we've learned from decades long campaign to promote  combat drug driving is a driver behavior is hard to change but strong laws through research consistent enforcement creative education innovative technology and industry participation are essential ingredients for success chairman thank you for holding this hearing on safety issues caused by drivers distracted by wireless and electronic communication devices i think we all agree that distracted drivers are impediments to road safety the national highway transportation safety administration estimates that twenty five percent of crashes involve some form of distraction while it is important to keep in mind that this statistic encompasses all forms of distraction and not just electronic and wireless device distraction the rise in electronic and wireless device usage has introduced new traffic safety challenges texting while driving is particularly concerning as a driver is manually visually and cognitively distracted i'm pleased to hear that chevrolet wireless carriers have taken it upon themselves to initiate a number of public education campaigns to increase the level of awareness on the correlation between texting and distracted driving twenty one states and the district of columbia have passed legislation banning text messaging while driving in fact some states have gone further have prevented prohibited all drivers from talking on hand held cell phones while driving as i'm sure we'll hear in today's testimony distraction from electronic and wireless devices can take many forms and i support a requirement i welcome our distinguished witnesses today i look up here probably everyone in the audience probably guilty of the concerns we have in fact on the way in this morning my wife pointed out that a lady next to traffic was actually put on our eye makeup and had her whole kit or whatever there sitting there and most  moving there i guess my interest was is that even though i use my blackberry my cell phone literally all the time i know it's dangerous so i think i need a law saying not to do it but really we depend on our states for doing that also happen in our driveways and parking lots off and on monday i participated in a press conference with five families who had lost or nearly lost a child to the power when in one case a mother pulled into the driveway of her home and put up a window to keep out the impending rain notice that her five year old son it and stuck his head out the window and by the time our daughter alerted her to the situation the boy had already turned blue and required  of despite extensive publicity given to the national highway safety bureau public advisory tragedies resulting from accidental operation of windows are still being reported this is august nineteenth sixty nine hood here today i do intend to ask about that proposal thank you and i thank you mr koski the gentleman from north carolina mr butterfield is recognized for two minutes thank you very much i want to  thank you chairman boucher and chairman rush for convening this important hearing and thank the two witnesses for the your testimony today i think i know secretary la hood just a little bit better than chairman janet koski but welcome to both of you i don't decision that i was going to stop doing so and i have done so in my prior life i was a trial judge and was one of the first judges in my state to have technology on the bench and i found myself being distracted from court proceedings  because i would read e mail and do research on the bench and after several months of doing that i even stopped doing that on the bench and so this is a real issue really should not only for drivers but those who will hold critical  work and so thank you for your attention and thank you for convening this hearing and i look forward to changing the law so that we can protect the public as we go forward one final story i was riding with a friend a couple years ago and a teenager was in front of and she was driving in and talking on a cell phone and my friend said that young teenage you need to put that telephone down and pay attention to what she's doing and then several minutes later his cell phone rang and he began a conversation on his cell phone and so i reminded him that he had just criticize a young lady in front of him and his response was well i'm conducting business she was just having a casual conversation but we all find excuses to defend our behavior but this is a subject that we must deal with so thank you so very much i yield back the balance of my time thank you very much mr butterfield that concludes opening statements by members of the two subcommittees and we welcome to ou very distinguished first panel of witnesses our former colleague from the state of illinois the distinguished gentleman ray la hood who is now the secretary of the united states department of transportation had also the chairman of the federal communications commission mr julius jenin koski we're honored to have both of you with us this morning and look forward to your comments without objection your prepared written statement will be made a part of the record and we would welcome your oral summaries of approximately five minutes and secretary la hood we're pleased to begin with you will chairman boucher and chairman rush thank you and then to ranking member our thanks to you also for the opportunity to appear today to discuss the important issue of distracted driving transportation c p s the department's highest priority distracted driving is a dangerous practice that has become a deadly epidemic our research shows unless we take action now the problem is often only going to get worse especially among our nation's youngest drivers this trend distresses me deeply and i am personally committed to reducing the number of injuries and patel caused by distracted driving about four weeks ago that apartment of transportation hosted a summit to help us identify target and tackle the fundamental elements of the problem we brought together over three hundred experts in safety transportation research regulatory affairs and law enforcement more than five thousand people from fifty states and a dozen countries participated in the summit via the web we heard from several young adults who had emerged  who had engaged in distracted driving and to discuss the terrible consequences of their actions we also heard from several victims of this behavior whose lives have been changed forever mothers and fathers who lost children and children who lost their parents lost a parent told us their stories and i want you to know i promised i would make this issue my cause unanimous conclusion of the summit participants is that distracted driving is a serious and ongoing threat to safety this conclusion is borne out by the fact our latest research shows that nearly six thousand people died last year in crashes involving a distracted driver and more than half a million people were injured this is not a problem caused by just a few negligent drivers to the contrary aaa foundation for traffic safety a nonprofit educational and research organization reports that sixty seven percent of drivers at mid to talking on their cell phones in the last thirty days while behind the wheel and twenty one percent of drivers indicated they had read or sent a text or e mail message a figure that rose to forty percent for those drivers under the age of thirty five on any given day last year an estimated eight hundred thousand vehicles were driven by someone who used a hand held cell phone at some point during their drive this problem is not just confined to vehicles on the road it affects all modes of transportation experts agree there are types of distraction visual taking your eyes off the road manual taking your hands off the wheel and cognitive taking your mind off the road while all distractions going to impact texting is the most troubling because it involves all three types of distractions for all of these reasons at the conclusion of the summit i announced a series of concrete actions that president  obama's administration and are taking to put an end to distracted driving the president's executive order banning texting and driving for federal employees is the cornerstone of these efforts it sends a strong unequivocal signal to the american public that distracted driving is dangerous and i think the executive order prohibits or bans federal employees from engaging in text messages while driving government  electronic equipment supplied by the government while driving while driving privately owned vehicles when an official went on an official government business the ban takes effect government wide on december thirtieth this year however i've already advised all fifty eight thousand employees that they're expected to comply with the order immediately meanwhile the department is taking several actions to address distracted driving and i'm pleased to announce today that and our friends at f c c are launching a joint effort to evaluate technology that may help curb distracted driving our department will work together to evaluate technology based solutions to the problem and coordinate consumer outreach and education and look forward to working with the f c c chairman general who will help us take advantage of technical expertise in addition th department has awarded demonstration programs in two states with handheld cell phone laws new york and connecticut to test the impact of visibility law enforcement action on community compliance with these laws we will evaluate these programs and report the results in about eighteen months this is taking place in new york and hartford connecticut we hope this approach will prove as effective in reducing distracted driving as it has been reducing drunk driving making or enforcement one codified in restrictions on the use of cell phones and other electronic devices in rail operations to consider banning text messages and restricting the use of cell phones by truck and interstate bus operators while operating vehicles and three disqualify school bus drivers convicted of texting while driving for maintaining their commercial driver's license we will work aggressively and quickly important topic i'd like to commend secretary of transportation ray la hood for his excellent statement and his leadership on this issue as the secretary indicated in his statement the f c c and d o t will be partnering on a range of efforts to address this important issue and i look forward to our agencies working together this issue as we've heard from many of the members is a personal one for so many of us i have an eighteen year old myself and i see how he and his friends incessantly text and use technology there's a big part of me obviously that's excited about all of the opportunities of technology but boy do i worry when he gets behind the wheel and gets on the road and it's a conversation that we have many conversations about this is a very real topic with serious safety implications let me begin by giving some context to this serious problem and that describes some avenues the f c c has pursue is your mike is your mike still i apologize for the now thank you these technologies and some ways contribute to safety when when the car breaks down at night when there's an emergency when you're on the road there's obvious value to having a mobile device at the same time however mobile devices especially in cars has had some unintended and dangerous consequences we now know that mobile communications is leading to a significant increase in distracted driving resulting in injury and loss of life according to aaa nearly fifty percent of teens admit to texting while driving eleven percent of all drivers on the road are holding an electronic device that amounts as we've heard so over eight hundred thousand distracted drivers at any given time report in two thousand and eight the driver distraction is the cause of sixteen percent of all fatal crashes fifty eight hundred people killed and twenty one percent of crashes result an injury that's over five hundred thousand people injured there's no way around it this is an urgent problem that must be addressed now i don't believe there is a single solution to this problem all of us have a responsibility to tackle this issue raising awareness setting an example pursuing other strategies individuals companies in the wireless space as well as those of us in government when necessary step is to work to develop a cultural norm that driving while texting is completely unacceptable in this regard i want to acknowledge that the industry trade association in cooperation with the national safety council has initiated  joint campaign with the slogan on the road off the phone focus on educating teen drivers on the dangers of distracted driving they've devised a website for parents and they're pursuing other educational measures measures i urge all carriers to support and be innovative with this and other campaigns on the federal level i salute the leadership the president has shown in issuing executive order that prohibits federal workers from texting while driving i applaud secretary la hood of the department of transportation for taking action to raise public awareness through an impressive coordinated effort partnering with states and localities to encourage additional safety measures and initiating rulemaking to address the dangers of distracted driving at the state level as we've heard eighteen states have already made it illegal to text while driving putting the brakes on the distracted driving epidemic will require both dedication and creative thinking and the f c c is committed to doing its part to address this growing crisis at the f c c i reinforced the agency employees the importance of complying with the president's executive order i believe we can play an important and constructive role in being role models and in three critical areas first we can seek to identify and facilitate the development of innovative technologies that can read could reduce the risk of distracted driving we're already witnessing new technologies that could potentially be harnessed to generate a positive impact we should explore a full range of technologies that can reduce or eliminate driver distractions for example some smartphones and other technology allow users to control their mobile devices and vehicle systems using their voices there may be opportunities to sensor technology and key chains that would disable selected functions on a driver's mobile device activated by the start up of their car these are technologies worth exploring and to help address this issue i'm pleased to announce that the f c c will be partnering with the department of transportation to create a joint working group to identify and assess new technologies that could help prevent distracted driving the d o t is already receiving numerous inquiries as is the f c c and we look forward to making progress second the f c c can bring together industry groups consumer and consumer advocates groups and other stakeholders to coordinate a much broader response to the challenges of distracted driving we intend to work with all stakeholders on educational and awareness campaigns and third the f c c will itself pursue consumer outreach and education on distracted driving our consumer and governmental affairs bureau has already launched a website and has begun its educational efforts i see that my time is about to expire so i can return to this during the questions let me say that we take this very seriously at the f we see this is an area where the department of transportation and the f c c can work effectively together where our agency with this expertise on communications can be a resource both to the department of transportation and to the committee as important issue is explor i think both the witnesses will begin with with questions and and i'd like to begin secretary la hood i'm not trying to change the subject here but i was so moved by these families some in the car and doesn't notice what's going on with the with the windows as it was required by cameron gulbransen kids and transportation safety act did an investigation and proposed a rule a rule that is just amazing it says that it says that there will be no cost to the rules that are proposed and that it will save exactly zero lives that's  the proposed rule it says that only on windows that feature one touch or express up closing will have to have the auto reverse we do it in elevators and garage doors and everything else  involved in and we will go back and look at the figures that are in that release and look at the study i'll be happy to meet with you i have reviewed the rules if i thought the rule was not going to meet the highest standards  look at that and we'll work with you on it ok great because the window that they said the kind of window that they said had to have auto reverses generally generally already have that technology and they're generally only found in the driver's window so we can talk about that but is hands free also talking on the phone a hazard met i'm sure i would say this i would say all of these things are distractions we have really focused on texting because it's an epidemic everybody in this room is hooked on cell phones teenagers are hooked on texting now most of the some of us myself in this i'm not smart enough or good enough to be able to text and drive but teenagers think that they can and there are just too many examples of children killing their friends or injuring their friends trying to text while driving but i say this i say eating a hamburger  while driving and it's also the area where we have the biggest opportunity to work together to create a cultural norm that is completely unacceptable there are a number of good suggestions that were made during the opening statements we've heard of in these statements there's no question the texting is  priority it's the epidemic it's also the one where i think we can do the most in the near term to shape a change cultural norm thank you and i yield back mister thank you thank you thank you my secretary you mentioned in your opening statement that there are six thousand fatal crashes involving distracted drivers how many involved of the six thousand actually can you pinpoint to text text messaging or distraction from electronic devices such as cell phone i'll get i'll get you the exact figure but the majority of them i don't i don't have the exact figure but i'll be happy to get it for the record ok because i think it's important if we can talk about what the actual numbers would be i mean when you talk about the three things of distractions the visual the mannion the cognitive i see this lots of times with my children when they have a stack of c d s on the front the front seat and they take their mind off to go search through those c d s and they search through fine and look at them while they're driving and put them into the cd player and as mentioned by other people ladies putting on makeup you know i oftentimes see people have a dog in the front seat in there the dog is going back and forth in the front seat with a drive and so there's lots of things here i agree that texting is a very serious thing are you advocating this morning that the federal government passed legislation much bill what i'm advocating is working with congress to eliminate this epidemic and we're going to work with congress on this we know congress is going to do something and we're going to work with congress i'm not i'm not here to endorse any any bill today  t we need to do something about it i will tell you this mr stearns ten years ago people had no idea what point zero weight is but they know what it is now and people ten years ago had no idea what clicker ticket was but they know what it is grants and we didn't penalize states with a twenty five percent reduction the transportation fees so the federal government can take a lot of steps to do this and not necessarily penalize states in fact base so down the road about technology we've seen a tremendous innovation in the wireless space i'm an optimist on technology and its ability to contribute to solutions to problems like this smartphones are getting smarter there may be ways that  smartphone technology applications on smart phones can be helpful are if id technology can be helpful here there is a question of how far to go how to balance the various desires that we have we know it  and we don't want anyone texting while driving we also know that if someone has an emergency in a car where they're sitting still that we want them to be able to call nine one want to call their family and i would what we will do at the f c c working with  is begin to shine a spotlight on the different technologies that may be available and to see if there are ways to incentivize technologies maybe increase incentives in the market to develop technologies that address the fundamental goal of safety do you think in your opinion do you think the federal government has to do something with a legislation like to humor bill we don't have a position on the legislation other than we want to be a resource for this committee in working on education and working on developing technologies as the committee explores legislation we'll be a resource particularly on the communications technology component of it just to divert i can't miss this opportunity you and i have talked a little bit about network network neutrality and perhaps you could explain why you've decided to pursue a network neutrality regulations without first conducting a market analysis as you know i sent you a letter on this and hoping that the f c c would at least establish that there's a need for before you issue a rule and you have a comment period so  i might not have an opportunity again so i thought with my opportunity here if you don't mind just commenting on we're hoping that maybe you would answer my letter that i sent i think it's three pages and we had about almost twenty members of the energy and co and we're hoping that you'll answer and perhaps give us an idea why you couldn't conduct a market analysis before you consider that neutrality rule mr stern is the fundamental goal of this proceeding is to ensure that the freedom of the internet is preserved it is the principle of a free unfettered regulated internet that causes us to proceed of course as you know we're at the beginning of a proceeding and open internet deserves an open proceeding in this proceeding will be receiving lots of economic information and studies the economic issues the expression issues all of the issues will be focused over the course of this what we wanted to do was to make sure that we had an open process with full participation from everyone as we looked at this important issue for the country just if he possibly could answer our question with maybe your reply to it that would be appreciated thank you and now our chairman there's eighteen states that have passed laws i'd like to really sort of how we're going to interact with those and i'll be happy to submit an answer for the record i'll submit a question right here on this particular good it good i think good research i think good statistics i think all of these things i think congress is going to move forward with some bill and we want to work with congress on this and we think we can help provide some good research and good backup information and and be a good have authority with respect to cell phones i think our first focus is on education of consumers making sure that we have the information about the technology and that we are providing to this committee as it does its work information on the area  be involved in raising awareness education focusing on the technologies that may be helpful in addressing this problem bringing our expertise to bear with respect to technology devices and the industry to help address the effective their responsibilities of the commission as you envision we we at this point are not asking for any additional authority and we're not proposing any specific rules we want to be a resource to be helpful in education and helpful on technology regulatory body in terms of driver behavior is that correct i didn't hear the first part of the question but we are not looking to be coming regulator drivers we will stay focused on our communications authority gentlemen thank you for your court talking and end up on the panel a lot of us were lighting a lot of incidences that occur you know in our personal history rolled up the window on my son's finger i was always taking him to ball practice almost went off the road once in a semi national park it was a tragic accident many years ago where somebody was coming out of the tunnel the wall in a tunnel where the best view of yosemite and other people were pulled off enjoying the view and he reached down to grab a pack of cigarettes and hit some ice and went off the road and killed about four people in a tragic accidents we all share this this concern about driver safety but there's a couple things i've learned about since i think in preparing for this hearing and i and i i'm looking forward to the testimony in the next panel of a gentleman by the name of tom de lay with virginia tech and the transportation studies that he has he's done a what's called a relative crash or near crash risk estimate charge that a lot of us will have the information if you don't already and i've noticed a couple of things and i want to go over this and perhaps as asked two questions one is it this that it charts all the different things that happen in a vehicle from anywhere between adjusting the radio to text messaging and one of the odds of things what's the increased probability that that activity is going to lead to an accident and i find a lot of things that are grouped into one thing and then one one one particular piece of behavior that stands out dramatically more than just anything else and that's text messaging and it seems that a lot of things are grouped into the one to ten times more likely that you'd be involved in an accident that includes applying makeup reading dialing handheld devices handling c d s adjusting the instrument panel it's a tough one for me talk listening on a handheld talking or listening to the radio reaching for an object in the vehicle all those are grouped around like the likelihood of one or ten more times like at risk being involved in an accident or near accident and what stands out as twenty three times more likely to be involved far and away beyond all the other ones is text messaging and i think a lot of us included in our opening statements about text messaging how it tends to be as mr butterfield was saying that younger person was the one that are more inclined to be doing that and they're more inclined to be distracted farm in a way of at risk of being of causing these at accidents and my fear is that if you approach this issue from a from a wide open perspective that we're going to be looking at driver's license you know people wanting it to get a driver's license or going to be equal to an airline pilot getting an airline pilot in the driver's seat looking like a cockpit on an airline to try to achieve  results that you you want to do so so i'd like to know two things and one is from each of you do you recognize lear data difference between text messaging and then all the other behaviors are at risk behaviors as being one that stands out dramatically and the other would be if you were to wait three things as approaches to what you think is more important from most important to least important and that would be the three issues i think you'd want to deal with this with and that would be public education innovation relying on auto manufacturers and or communications folks to to through their through their design of their equipment and a new technology to deal with this problem or regulation if i can get you to right what would be the most important approach and what would be the least approach public education innovation and regulation and then get some sense about do you recognise that it's text distracted driving and text messaging is an epidemic but i believe that that's why we had a two day summit that's why all of these people watched it on the web and came to over three hundred person and heard the horror stories from parents and fashioned will not be successful unless there is a highly collaborative relationship between the two of you as the leaders of this and and your agencies so thank  i can't help but think of how far we've come with technologies in our country and i always want to see innovation motivated by everything that we do and that we are the leaders in the world on it so by no means do i want this effort to cut into what i just described on the other hand what many of our blessings are we know are a burden when it comes to driving and more than a burden it can be a disaster should this just be with handheld devices what about the computer terminals in truck should we be looking at the regulation of  use i don't know how far you drill down on this but if you have any thoughts about it i'd like your reactions and then two things that i'd like to state before you answer the question first to what the chairman of the sense that we have left it out i don't you know i think it makes all the sense in the world and we haven't done it so i'm not going to ask you to comment on it because you probably haven't seen the letter it just went out but i'd like to hear back from you when you do so anyway back to my question about where we placed some parentheses around this that we protect innovation but how far should we go and if you have given any thought to this well i like your approach about putting fiber down i think as we're personal commitment to this is you call that this is a personal cause of yours and that's going to go a long way for repertoire people in the country i would i agree and i would just add that and i agree also on the on the ditches you know  technology often has this feature over the course of american history it provides extraordinary opportunities and benefits to the country but it can have negative effects that come with it it's true of the car itself and so over time we as a country identify safety issues and we mobilize to tackle it whether it's drunk driving or seat belts or child seats in cars and over the course of experience with this i think the core lesson for me is that the inevitab that technology will have great opportunities is true that it will have downsides is also true that we will address the downsides it's not automatic we have to do what the committee is doing today we have secretary la hood is doing and others here are doing to shine light on the dangers that are brought about by technology focus on education focus on how technology can be part of the problem focus on how government can be a role model and focus on all innovative ideas for how government action can contribute to a solution so that we have both continuing improvement technology innovation and that we tackle with real energy and moment the safety issues that can be presented by technology thank you very much thank you recognize the gentleman from pennsylvania  restrict the use of cell phones by truck and interstate bus operators could you expand on that well right now if you're if you're a truck driver they have inboard computers and they have we're looking at all of these things these things are all distractions i suppose if you're talking to someone in the car that could be a distract that's correct if you're eating a hamburger if you're shaving if you're adjusting your radio if you're trying to adjust as all of these things are distractions they take away from your ability to drive safely and i'm sure you're familiar with h r thirty five thirty five the driver's act subsection d requires the secretary to promulgated minimum penalties for those using a handheld phone while driving could you give us a ballpark of what those minimum penalties might be if that bill became law in order to be effective you know i haven't really looked at that bill mr pitts and we're committed to working with congress on the way forward here but we're not we're not endorsing any bills i haven't looked at that so i can't really give you ok you your in your testimony you mentioned that we should explore full range of technologies that can reduce or eliminate driver distraction could you expand on what some of those technologies might be  also if you would support mandatory implementation of any of those technologies in the future technologies that could potentially be helpful range voice to text technologies or other hands free technology th secretary la hood mentioned those don't eliminate distractions they could reduce and it's an open issue how to tackle those other technologies could a limit a particular kinds of uses while driving for example one could imagine  technologies that disable texting while the car is in motion we are just at the beginning of working with secretary la hood in the department to catalog technologies that may be helpful i think by shining a light on this we help in further innovation to drive solutions and this kind of discussion is very helpful been able to learn from state level implementation a ban on cell phone usage or texting while driving we're at the beginning of our data gathering evaluation so at this point no lessons to report do you have any plans together more effective data on cellphone use or driving we will work together with the department of transportation as a resource to the committee to continue to improve the data that helps focus attention on the most serious problems and the best solution and now you mention raising public awareness what kind of things are you talking about what tools  combination of working with private industry on developing a message working in public private partnerships getting that message out through various platforms online can be effective for some audiences but obviously not for all audiences and there are various mechanisms for community outreach and the more seriously one takes the need for education the more one can do thank you thank you m mentioned in a testimony the f c c or pursue consumer outrage and education programs similar to your efforts with the t v transition and broadband plan now one of the many education efforts can come from handset labeling and the current role of labeling of wireless devices well labeling will be something that will be looked at as part of an overall inquiry into what kinds of educational efforts would work out ok then do you believe that the f c c has the ability to to impose consumer oriented labeling requirements without explicit statutory authorization we have been at this point studied the labeling issue we're going to begin with a workshop on these topics  ensure that school bus drivers do not endanger our youth particular very important do you foresee the need for the federal government to step in here and really actually enforce th five thank you chairman rush ranking member stearns members of the subcommittee i appreciate the opportunity to testify my name is david teeter i'm senior director of the transportation initiatives with the national safety council i'm also the father of joe teeter my son joe was killed in a crash caused by a cell phone distracted driver in grand rapids michigan on january twentieth two thousand and four joe was a wonderful kid always happy always smiling he was the spark plug of our family was the youngest of our three sons as you can imagine our lives have been changed forever not a day goes by or will go by  that we won't miss him every single day it's impossible to explain in words what the loss of a child like that means to somebody you know maybe the worst part of this is this tragedy was the result of a phone call the young lady who ran a red light in broad daylight was speaking on her phone and looking straight out the windshield and she didn't see the four cars in the school bus stop in the other southbound lane for the red light she didn't see our vehicle which was about the fourth or fifth car to cross through the intersection a clear example of cognitive distraction of the traction of the phone conversation about a year after joe's death i started looking at the research on cellphone distracted driving and i was surprised at the large body of work that already existed in two thousand and five and  then the near unanimous conclusion about how dangerous this activity is i decided to leave the for profit business world and advocate on behalf of others like us who have lost a loved one as a result of this new and rapidly escalating threat my journey over the last three years  included multiple speaking engagements with safety business parent groups all over north america i helped launch the startup technology company that's developed a solution to on distracted driving i've reviewed nearly all the research on this issue and i regularly speak about the distraction of cognitive the cognitive distraction in january of this year the national safety council became the first national organization to call for a ban on cell phone driving and they offered me the opportunity to come work for them to lead that effort and so i'm no working i've been with the national safety council for seven months leading their efforts on distracted driving and teen driving so how dangerous is is cellphone driving or research for more than seventy five peer reviewed studies clearly shown that using phones while dangerous is driving several studies reported the use of cell phone increases the crash response and multiple of four these studies also found no difference and handheld versus hands free devices talk this morning a little bit about the difference in distractions cognitive mechanical visual i would i would point out to the committee that we all understand when we're visually and mechanically distracted we don't know when we're talking to a distracted it's actually mentally easier for me to have this conversation when i can look at you and so you're engaged and see if you're about to say anything and if i was trying to imagine all this on the phone while i was having this conversation we've been driving vehicles for one hundred years been talking on phones for about seventy five we've only combine those two activities to any great degree in the last five or ten years and we never understood the cognitive demand of a cell phone of a telephone conversation we understand that now so how do we address the issue obviously we do it through legislation enforcement education technology we've talked a lot about legislation and foresman i just want to point out we believe strongly at the national safety council that education will only work in the presence of good legislation and for years in the seat belt and even drunk driving campaigns we worked hard to just educate people about how dangerous it was but it wasn't until states pass laws and we combine the two and that high visibility enforcement that we really started to make a difference so we've got to have even the national transportation safety board has looked at this evidence and they put a policy in place banning all use for their employees i think that's significant the national safety council is twenty thousand corporate members we know that at least five hundred of them of already looked looked at the science and said this is dangerous we can't have it and they put cell phone driving policies in place banning their employees from using all kinds of cell phones hand held hand and free lastly i want to just talk about i want to mention technology strong laws visibly enforced combined with education will help address is epidemic except please note this is and it was mentioned earlier this is a unique distraction it is very very difficult for us to ignore ringing phone it's even probably more difficult for a teenager to ignore an unbound text message there's a compelling almost addictive nature of the demand that's put on us when that when that phone call or text message comes in so laws will help will start everything and in the works education will help but we really believe that this is an issue that needs to be addressed by technology  i have met with the n s c is met with and we're encouraging several entrepreneurial companies eight of them out there that have great ideas there's at least four of them that have demonstrably product available in the very near future three of these companies should be to market with very early versions in the next few months one company has had their technology tested on one of the war large wireless operators and the technology test was successfully pas these products are out there they need to be encouraged the wireless industry sitting here at this table the auto industry sitting here at this table and government agencies like the f c c with proper engagement can dramatically shorten the time to market for these life saving technologies these small companies are finding like most startups at their challenge with the issues of capital and getting the attention of the large wireless operators auto manufacturers just getting phone calls returned so i think of all the things that this committee that could be the best is to to encourage attention given to these technologies and get them to market they're just some of them are just amazing i don't have time to get into all now but some of them even involve say forms of communication they don't just shut the phone off the twenty year old woman  around the red light causing a crash that killed my son she was on the phone with her church at the time where she volunteered for kids my son's age she was recently married looking forward to leaving for basic training with her husband who is just a list of the united states air force obviously her life has been ruined as well as as ours she was a good person i'm absolutely convinced that if she knew what i know today about how dangerous activity is or if there was a law in michigan at the time prohibiting cell phone use she would not been on the phone to my son would be alive today there's no phone call email technology cell phones and other communication devices and we and when we support state enforcement programs we think a combination of two must go for and in that regard when you look at technology some of the devices are already in integrated into the vehicle and in two thousand and seven the center petitioned to issue a safety standard that would describe devices when the car shifted out of park into gear  devices in two thousand and eight we learned had done a study in two thousand and three addressing this so we filed a freedom of information act saying we'd like to get all the records what you considered earlier and what you have to demonstrate that has or denied the request in one appeal and one lawsuit lighter in two thousand and eight we found the government had done and had withheld hundreds of pages of documents on the hazards of cellphones and other technological distraction and the secretary minetta had before him a plan to go for it much like secretary la hood has today on this very issue but they not  withheld it and actually took back all the copies of their research and reports but they disbanded their program the general accounting office is documented so the tragedy as we lost six years in which we could be doing what we're doing today but what i and secretary la hood credit with the national driving several moves forward on this the president's order banning texting for government workers is a good step but as welcome as these steps are they are not nearly enough to offset the safety threat or driver distraction caused by technological devices in motor vehicles we don't even have an inventory of all the technologically distracting devices on the road today let alone  technology could help counter that distraction we've made great strides in other areas but where our risk of losing some of the gains we've gotten through driver programs advanced technology and safer road design and the center for auto safety has recommendations for this committee and our recommendations in terms of moving forward are to require no special crash investor investigation unit to conduct a study on cell phone crashes using cases reported to it just as is done for emerging technologies such as airbags a danger out of position argue that's our first recommendation our second recommendation is to require  to develop a safety standards that would require data recorders to indicate cellphone or other kalimat device used during a crash or third recommendation is to require nits to provide an annual report to congress evaluating new electronic technologies that the auto and telecommunications industries are introducing including a new car to assess the potential for distraction if you don't know what's going into the vehicles you can't hel defragmentation to recognize that most states today require blood alcohol content on content tests for drivers and federal crash we'd like to require and investigate in fatal crash investigations to determine whether cell phones are six recommendation is to require the telecommunications companies to provide information on cell phones and other communication devices for safety studies on  driving known for twenty years before we started let's not wait twenty years to see if there's comparable technology for technological distracting devices and finally we'd like to require vehicle manufacturers who the lack of data to find what the solutions are to this enormous problem we need more data and recommendations that we have and they've lost to get the data to develop effective solutions and examples of good and good and bad practice you might go it how's that better let me highlight just to practice two principles principle one point fo addresses the positioning of visual in vehicle telematic displays the proper positioning of displays allows drivers to continue to monitor the roadway peripherally by looking at the display by positioning it close to the driver's normal line of sight principle two point one said visual demand limit eyes off the road time is limited because functions are features are locked out while driving if visual demand exceeds set limits based on a baseline which is tuning the radio the goal of the guidelines is to maximize eyes on road it is a rare crash that occurs while a driver's eyes are on the roadway when a driver's eyes are not a risk of a crash increases studies involving actual driving such as virginia tech hundred car study and others indicate that visual distraction is the primary concern looking  away from the road scene is the principal contributor to crashes and their misses the guidelines are now in their third iteration and the alliance is committed to updating them as scientific understanding of driver behavior continues to  every day the industry is engaged in high tech research and implementation of new safety technologies with real world safety benefits such as autonomous braking systems and vehicle safety communication systems for crash avoidance auto makers are working on important safety enhancements right now that use wireless communications in the near future cars will be linked wirelessly to other cars near them and with their soundings to enhance safety by informing drivers of hazards in situations they can't see real time navigation will also be provided which will be critical to advancing how we manage congestion and even further reduce c o two emissions so what should be done and here these are not individual recommendations but a package of recommendations we need appropriate laws with high visibility enforcement alliance supports a ban on hand held texting and handheld calling while driving to accelerate the transition to more advanced safer ways to manage many common potential distractions we need to consume raja cation about these laws and to support law enforcement activities and to educate drivers that driving distractions are a risk so that drivers know that even with the cutting edge safety technology found in today's cars driving distractions are a risk not just handheld texting and handheld calling but eating drinking searching for a cd anything that prolongs a driver's eyes off the road present  service finally we need continue research so that we can further understand driver behaviors to enable the development of ever safer systems and all of this should be done without severing the wireless communications also one of the best for consumers in emergency situations in fact wireless subscribers make more than two hundred ninety thousand calls to nine one one another emergency services every day while the industry recognizes wireless devices that require drivers to take their hands off the wheel and their eyes off the road are incompatible with safe driving the solution to the problem distracted driving with enhanced personal responsibility and the realization that the primary obligation of every driver but there are steps government and industry can take to modify behavior that contribute to driving i'd like to briefly discuss with you our thoughts on what the steps are starting on the ledge we support pass legislation that would prohibit manual text and email messaging by all drivers been working with the national conference of state legislatures another state organization through these efforts we hope to encourage option of legislation addressing this problem while we are committed to this course we also agree with secretary la hood and chairman that a single solution probably will not solve the problem of distracted are naturalistic driving data have produced discoveries that must be carefully considered in determining an appropriate action to this growing problem first the distraction issues that we face today are much different than those we face just a few years ago and consequently are resulting in a growing number of crashes texting typing reading and dialing are much much worse than tuning a radio or talking or driving distraction problem is particularly time critical because a number of crashes involving complex tasks is growing exponentially while safety benefits can be realized with the deployment of electronic devices these benefits can be attained only in vehicles engineered to minimize driver distraction fourth teen drivers by far represent the largest population of those who engage in complex tasks while we drive and consequently are at the greatest risk to the problem of driver distraction associated with electronic devices is multi dimensional requiring multiple solutions for example history has shown that education and public awareness efforts although necessary will be insufficient in and of themselves to protect the public and conclusion driving distraction associated with electronic devices is creating a serious and growing public health risk due to this risk and the rapid deployment of these technologies quick and decisive action is needed however measured action is also warranted so that the solution enacted with good intent do not  improve ment's in driving safety therefore i recommend the following approach first a primary law banning the use of handheld wireless devices in a moving vehicle this law should  preclude the use of cell phones m p three players blackberries i phones etc as well as headset use with conventional phone should also and exclude through hands free and  vehicle devices that are samples operate and do not require substantial i r this law should carry a significant monetary fine and points should include a total cellphone ban for newly license themes and for special cases such as school buses and other special it should exclude emergency communications for all users we need a regulation limiting the functionality of visually demanding in vehicle devices in moving vehicles this includes such tasks manual navigation destination and all keyboard including those for heavy trucks should include all complex reading third standards for developing for testing or potentially distracting devices to market introduction  broadly applied three things will help substantially with our current driving direction epidemic thank you very much you thank you chairman rush and ranking member of the insurance institute for highway safety is a nonprofit research communications organization whose mission is to reduce the deaths and trees and property damage that occur on our nation's roads were supported by us auto insurance thank you for the opportunity to share our research cell phone use while driving in the us a widespread and increasing we need to look at what we know and don't know about the problem and potential solutions the public  rest but there is little doubt that this is a problem you have heard testimony that the problem is drivers taking their eyes off the road rather than talking but this assertion is based on analyses of safety relevant events that included only a small number of crashes and it is contradicted by two well controlled studies including one by our institute verified and large samples of crash involved and found that the risk of crashing was four times higher when a driver was talking on either i hands free or a handheld phone my remarks today will focus on the effects of laws banning driver's phone use seven states in the district of columbia make it illegal to talk on a hand held phone while driving the institute study driver responses to three of these bands there was considerable variation in the effects but the results show that bands can produce large and long term reductions in drivers handle phone use based on a study of north carolina's ban on teen drivers use of any kind of phone age focus laws may have much less effect especially if teens perceive the ban as not being enforced but the safety of facts have hand held bans are unknown many drivers still use hand held phones even where use is banned and other drivers may simply switch to hands free given that crash risk increases substantially while talking on either hand held her hands free phones bans on  handheld phones won't eliminate crashes for those who switch to hands free we also don't know the effects of bans on total time that drivers talk if drivers who switch to hands free devices have longer or more conversations and when they were using handheld in the total time at risk for a distraction related crash may increase laws limiting driver's use of all electronic devices make the most sense based on research but enforcing such laws would be problematic as part of ongoing research to understand the implications of bands the institute is examining insurance collision claim frequencies and states that enacted hand telephone bans figure to in my written testimony shows monthly rates of collision claims for california during the eighteen months before and the twelve months after a hand held ban took effect in july two thousand and eight the figure also shows claim rates aggregate across neighboring states of arizona  oregon although the rates vary considerably month to month there is no notable change in california collision claim right associated with the ban over all the months to months changes in claim rates in the months leading up to and following the ban are very similar to those poor in the comparison states several similar analyses for new york state and the district of columbia tell us similar story no apparent reduction in collision risk with a handheld phone these analyses are preliminary they are simple descriptive statistics of collision claims risk over time however they raise questions about the potential effectiveness of handheld cell phone bans in terms of the most important variable the safety of our roads they indicate a need to better understand how and when drivers use phones and how cell phone bans affect that usage and crash risk some have provoke propose that educational campaigns will reduce phone use and texting while driving however education alone has not proven effective in changing driver behavior aside survey shows that most people agree the driver should not phone and dri even many of those who met admit that they do so a potential approach is curbing driver sound use with technology that control can control how and when motorists use their phones the main customers for such technology may be fleet managers or parents of teenage drivers however phone blockers of any sort are yet in widespread use in their real world the facts are known driver error has long been the most frequent proximate cause of crashes to prevent or mitigate some of these errors auto makers and their suppliers are introducing various technologies designed to alert drivers to imminent collisions or dangerous situations and in some cases to automatically brake or correct the course of the vehicle it's important to consider that these new technologies may offer some protection against distractions from cell phone use or other sources before policymakers can make sound decisions about what countermeasures to ado we need better evidence on several issues but the most serious deficit in our knowledge is that we do not know whether laws banning drivers have reduced the frequency of crashes before we encourage or require that more states pass by and we need to establish whether they enhance traffic safety thank you very much  and i'm not sure whether it's common and driver education classes to include information on distraction i think however that as a cautionary driver education can be an effective way to teach wireless device but i have to agree with dr mccarthy you know that that's a that's a necessary thing to do educate young people but it is insufficient when really not you know it's hard very hard country is not only enforcement but enforcement that strong publicized when we've looked at states that have hand held phone bans we actually pretty high levels of enforcement but we think one issue can't necessarily enforce it and so maybe the combination of technology on the phone and the technology in the vehicle we can stop this much like i got to put my seatbelt on i gotta listen to this bang bang bang forever   distracted how many of those would go to text messages so maybe the larger issue between the cell phone companies and the automobile manufacturers we could institute preventive procedures about education but we need three things we need strong laws visibly enforced we need education about those laws the fact that they are being and for so that we know that we create the perception that if you drive distracted you're going to be caught and you're going to be fined or maybe even the points and then there is a technology component we are at the alliance at least doing that by designing our systems  guidelines which are very well rigorously based on sound science and the research to mitigate and manage the driver distraction when you do enter a car and if you are carrying a device you can connect that device either physically or electronically and then it becomes integrated with the operation of the vehicle and subject to our guidelines so we know how to do this and it was also thinking that in the case of the sun sun that that woman when she started to get distracted do it something in the car would alert her that she's being distracted because the distance in the radar between her and the vehicle she's going to hit with signal and her speed and a b and automatically flashed that she would know there are other technologies absolutely that we are working on a driver assist technology that could but but the one thing we cannot do is understand what you are thinking we don't  done into the cell phone that would sense that when a person is using text messages at a certain speed or something that it would not work or is there something that could be put into the cell phone tied to  idea there's about six companies that are already doing it i've become aware of at least six or seven companies approached my office to say that they're developing either applications that you just simply download on your phone or actual  augmentation to a cellular phone that actually would shut it down after the trip when the phone senses that is traveling at more than five miles an hour right you will shut down your ability to use the phone so if you're going to you got to stop the phone i mean got to stop your car that's right yeah that's pretty easy to do dr mccarthy i mean your testimony was factual but what you're basically saying that if we pass these laws there's no assurance there's no evidence that it will stop people from using them and distracting themselves there's no evidence that passing laws to do anything is that what you're saying  also saying that we have no idea how many people are actually in the case of missing that are actually been distracted and died because well there's forty five thousand  a car crash after it's occurred it's almost impossible for a police officer to document that someone was talking on the phone or found out that the woman who caused it he found everything about it  did with the seatbelts would we say the states will get grants if they adopt this law as an incentive what what is your ultimate if you could wave a wand today what would you well what whatever would get it done the fastest and i guess i'm not i'm not as experienced with these things as i should be to recommend that but i do believe that this is a problem that's come up on us very very quickly and it's going to escalate very quickly if we don't get ahead of it i agree with mccarthy we do not know how many crashes are causes it's hard to determine that i like the questions about the technology the some of the ideas you throw out have been tested there out there yeah i mean that will argue need to get on the market  need to get them to market quickly i know there is at least employers in this country and parents in this country would use these technologies for their kids and their employees without any incentive or law they do it to morrow and we make our roadways safer so we have to move forward on all fronts as fast as possible and i do think it is time for federal leadership probably because it's come up so suddenly and i believe that we can move faster at this level than we can at all at every state level some states move fast i know but all right thank if you tried to call me and i'm driving you would get a recorded message that says it appears the caller is driving mr teeters driving press one to go to voicemail press two to leave an emergency voice pager press three to have your call automatically connected  the end of his journey so if we don't do that would that also disable passengers now the pastor there's a passenger override function which can be offered by the by the employer or by the parent they may not for that whenever you override as a past year it's reported back to the employer the parent was really interesting congratulations on your work thank you for your work but it's just it's not just that company there's at least six or seven others that have various products like that they're ready to go to market great that's exciting i want to ask about the issue of hands free sets i think it's very well established that we have a problem associated with visual distraction and tactile distraction drivers and i think that's very very clear a quote the question in my mind is for a hands free technology which presents a non visual non tactile disruption but it is a cognitive issue you know how should we think of that i'll just say my reaction i haven't seen any research about this but my reaction is is it shouldn't be any significantly different than talking to a passenger in the car in miami an immediate reaction is that talking to a passengers or in a car is not a distraction that is going to be one that we will try to legislate or should try to legislate and my immediate reaction is not not to distinguish a hands free conversation from a conversation with a passenger in the car and therefore we should try to legislate against a hands free situation and i would just ask anyone who has any science to discuss what we know about that or don't know about that i would appreciate knowing about it and any of our panel want to address that issue crashes and we also had information from them about whether handheld or hands free what we found in our study was that the risk of crashing was four times higher when someone was talking on the phone we didn't know about the dialing aspect and that there was no significant difference between the risk when it was when the person was using a hand held or hands free phone and there are also a lot of experimental studies simulators test that show that drivers are similarly distracted whether conversing handheld or hands free i think the distinction between passengers and a telephone conversation is  passengers because they are they may be helping the driver in the driving situation and know when to talk or not talk when someone is on the other end of a phone they're not driving with you so they can adjust the converse demands of the driving situation but i think that this is one area that the research has not really clearly established whether fully handsfree for example might have some margin of safety but i think it was a lemon i think hands free phones won't eliminate distraction is it clear at least right now that there's some fellows were showing me some research yesterday and suggested there was a very significant increase in the risk associated with texting twenty fold increase in rates of accidents but nothing ever perching many in close to that for how risky is the i don't believe the four fold increase i think it's less than two but i think it's greater than one so it is an issue but the act of holding the phone to one's ear versus not holding the phone to one's ear is not taking your eyes off the road there are really good simulators studies that show that if you are engaged in a in a really complex conversation emotional conversation on a cell phone your reaction time is delayed about three tenths of a second we have data from truck drivers where their eyes are off the road for five and that's the magnitude of the difference in the risk that you're talking about anne's right you know a twenty three fold increase we don't have a guarantee it's higher than fifteen and probably close to twenty is there anything comparing conversations with a passenger in the car comparing the passengers in a hands free environment with someone outside of car sure i mean i can we have a let me just as your first question is there any evidence that having passengers in the car and or having conversations with those messengers is a distraction that increases the  crash you have to think about it in the larger context of driving passengers can be a distraction but they also have benefits in the larger context my wife for example serves as a collision avoidance device because she's also talking on a hands free cell phone drive down the same road toll game same instructions get off the rest area and i think about sixty percent of the missed the rest in the first example again the passenger was in the driving environment even help point out the rest when there's a passenger there's a need and there's a needed pause in a conversation because the light suddenly turns yellow or someone's about to pull out the conversation stops when we're in a conversation on a cell phone with someone not in our environment there's a totally different cognitive function going on in the brain where we're engaged in another remote space so we don't see what's in front of us the pretty significant difference and that's one specific piece of research that compared those two and if i if i could i we need to look at the full body of research reconcile when you calibrate that research and compare it to the road actually driving research the doctor on the naturalistic research you find that the cot the role of cognitive disorder distraction would appear to be much less so we need to be thinking about how we manage and mitigate this risk which is what we're doing with our guidelines here is talking on a cell phone hands free or hand held pose a potential risk yes because  liken that to we ourselves test vehicles on a computer but we would not put that vehicle on the road until we tested that car in the real world against a barrier or otherwise and that's the same kind of thing you can do simulated studies they have value they allow you to iterate through various designs and research various things but at the end of the day you need to calibrate your stuff with real world testing before i forget what is the research are needed in a car a driver who's heating part of those numbers back up to eating drinking talking to passengers is much lower than the the much much lower than that the tasks are require you to take your eyes off