Federal officials step up effort to combat texting

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Calling texting and cellphone use “a national epidemic,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood laid out a blueprint Thursday for stepped-up federal efforts and pressure on states to crack down on distracted driving.

Studies show the problem is particularly acute among teenage and young-adult drivers, LaHood said.

“We need to teach kids, who are the most vulnerable drivers, that texting and driving don’t mix,” LaHood said at a news conference. He pointed to a recent case in which a texting teen driver involved in a fatal accident was ordered jailed for a year.

The Transportation Department also is awarding $2.4 million to Delaware and California for pilot projects to combine more police enforcement with publicity campaigns against distracted driving. Similar pilot projects in Syracuse, N.Y., and Hartford, Conn., were shown to successfully reduce distracted driving, LaHood said.

LaHood called on automakers to support voluntary government guidelines to ensure dashboard technologies increasingly being added to cars won’t distract drivers. But he rejected making the guidelines mandatory.