{"id":40506,"date":"2011-07-13T08:39:04","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T12:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=40506"},"modified":"2011-07-12T19:39:22","modified_gmt":"2011-07-12T23:39:22","slug":"ford-calls-for-nationwide-handheld-cellphone-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2011\/07\/ford-calls-for-nationwide-handheld-cellphone-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford Calls for Nationwide Handheld Cellphone Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Automakers and lawmakers alike appear to be growing increasingly concerned about distracted driving.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ford Motor Co. has become the first automaker to openly call for a nationwide ban on the use of handheld cellular phones.<\/p>\n

The maker\u2019s unusually public pronouncement, which lent support to a measure now before Congress, comes as a new study by the Governors Highway Safety Association releases results of a new study on distracted driving.\u00a0 It found that in 80 out of 100 car crashes studies the driver had turned away from the road at the time of impact.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Subscribe for Free!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In particular, the GHSA study revealed that drivers are four times as likely to have a crash while using a handheld phone as those not talking while behind the wheel.\u00a0 But the data also raised a note of caution about efforts to curtail distracted driving, reflecting recent studies finding that existing bans on the use of handheld phones already in place have had limited impact.<\/p>\n

A proposal by NY Democrat Carolyn McCarthy would compel all 50 states to ban motorists from using handheld phones while driving.\u00a0 And Pete Lawson, Ford\u2019s Vice President of Government Affairs, has hailed that as a positive step.<\/p>\n

The measure before Congress, \u201crepresents a practical, commonsense approach to a national problem” and that the company believed “drawing drivers’ eyes away from the road — whether (by) text messaging, manually dialing a cell phone or reading maps — substantially increases the risk of an accident or near misses.”<\/p>\n

What Cong. McCarthy dubbed, \u201cproactive\u201d legislation would specifically target handheld phones, but the measure eventually might reach more broadly because it would require federal safety regulators to study other possible \u201ccognitive distractions,\u201d including hands-free calling and other in-car infotainment systems.<\/p>\n

That may explain why other automakers, including General Motors, which have previously spoken out against handheld phones, failed to lend direct support to the McCarthy measure.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Ford itself could have the proposal backfire were regulators to start homing in on the expanding list of in-car systems, such as the maker\u2019s popular Sync.\u00a0 Ford just revealed it is beta-testing a new Operator Assist system that would allow users to connect to a live operator, taking a lead from GM\u2019s long-running OnStar.\u00a0 (<\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for more.) <\/em><\/strong>Infiniti, meanwhile, has launched the live operator-based Infiniti Personal Assistant.\u00a0 (For more on that, <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ray U.S. Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood has made it one of his primary goals to reduce the dangers of distracted driving \u2013 though his broad definition of the term has occasionally conflicted with the automotive and telecommunications industries.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a steady flow of research revealing just how serious the problem is.<\/p>\n

The Governors Highway Safety Association, or GHSA, study showed American motorists spent about 7% of their time behind the wheel talking on the phone, whether using hands-free or handheld systems. \u00a0But it stressed that texting \u201clikely increases\u201d the risk of a collision more than using the phone.<\/p>\n

The GHSA report blamed distracted driving for anywhere from 15 to 25% of all crashes, \u201cat all levels from minor property damage to fatal injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good news, it stated, is that \u201cdrivers adapt to some extent\u201d when distracted.\u00a0 Other research has shown that someone on the phone is more likely to slow down, leave a greater gap between cars or move out of the speed lane, for example.<\/p>\n

The association called for banning texting universally and for barring \u201cnovice\u201d drivers from using either handheld or hands-free phones.<\/p>\n

But GHSA Executive Director Barbara Harsha also sounded a note of caution, adding that, \u201cUntil more research is conducted, states need to proceed thoughtfully, methodically and objectively.”<\/p>\n

While the study did find some benefits from current bans on texting and handheld phone use, other reports suggest motorists are still yakking away where such efforts are barred.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Automakers and lawmakers alike appear to be growing increasingly concerned about distracted driving. TheDetroitBureau.com reports on Ford’s support for a proposed new anti-cellphone bill — and the results of an extensive new study on distracted driving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40506"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40506"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=40506"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=40506"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=40506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}