U.S. Worried About Drivers Who Text

(CBS/AP)  Updated 1:00 p.m. ET

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Tuesday he will convene a summit of experts to figure out what to do about driver cell phone use and texting, practices that studies - and a growing number of accidents - show can be deadly.

LaHood told a news conference he intends to gather senior transportation officials, safety advocates, law enforcement representatives, members of Congress and academics who study distracted driving for the summit next month in Washington.

If it were up to him, he would ban texting while driving, LaHood said.

However, past safety initiatives like seat belts have shown that a simple ban often isn't enough to get drivers to change their habits unless it's accompanied by education and enforcement, he said.

CBS News correspondent Howard Arenstein reports that drunk driving and seat belt campaigns will be the model when officials and experts get together late next month.

"We have learned that the model for solving problems like this is .08 and the way that's been implemented and also Click It or Ticket," LaHood told reporters.

LaHood said he wants drivers to know they should never have to take their eyes off the road for any reason, Arenstein reports.

"When we are done, I expect to have a list of concrete steps to announce," LaHood said in a statement.

"The bottom line is, we need to put an end to unsafe cell phone use, typing on BlackBerrys and other activities that require drivers to take their eyes off the road and their focus away from driving."

LaHood pointed to several fatal incidents involving texting, including Alyssa Burns, a 17-year-old Eureka, Ill., high school student killed in June when she drove off the road while sending a message to friends

The problem crosses other modes of transportation: A train crashed last year in California killing 25 people - including the train operator, who was texting at the time of the accident - and injuring 135.

In a study released last week, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that when drivers of heavy trucks texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting. Dialing a cell phone and using or reaching for an electronic device increased risk of collision about six times in cars and trucks.

The Virginia Tech researchers said the risks of texting generally applied to all drivers, not just truckers.

A separate report by Car and Driver magazine found that texting and driving is more dangerous than drunken driving.

Texting has grown from nearly 10 billion messages a month in December 2005 to more than 110 billion in December 2008, according to CTIA, the cellular phone industry's trade group.

Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have passed laws making texting while driving illegal.

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[Benton09]

Idea! Somebody invent a device that shuts down cell phone signals in a vehicle when a car is running. I would, but I'm not that smart. Ha!

[HierCount]

I find it amusing that a summit needs to be called to discuss what is a common sense problem. Action must taken immediatly and enforcement with severe penalties must be put in place if we are ever going to correct this behavior. I fear for my life everytime I take to the road because of it. ATTENTION ALL YOU TEXTING/CELL PHONE BLABBERING IDIOTS OUT THERE: IF YOU EVER HIT ME, YOU WILL PAY DEARLY!!

[credibility2]

Texting while driving is primarily a problem with younger drivers who are too stupid to get it. They've been over-indulged by their stupid parents to believe that they can do anything and everything without realizing the consequences for their actions. I know a kid in his early twenties who is totally incapable of understanding the problem with texting and continues doing it. Distracted drivers, regardless of the reason (noisy kids, blaring music, cell phones, texting, putting on makeup, shaving, reading, etc.) and who cause any type of accident, should have their licenses permanently revoked in every state. They are loose canons and a danger to the rest of us.

[edmondcb]

There are people who have been very directly affected by the loss of a daughter/sister/friend, as mentioned in the article. Any opinion you have is valid, but you should consider hesitating next time you call a person, or in your case, a whole demographic, stupid, because you feel like vitriol is the only way to get a point across. It's one way, but probably one of the least effective, as you just come off snide and judgmental, and, to the people mentioned above, inconsiderate and hurtful.

[whosaid1]

My coffee wasn't HOT yesterday at McDonalds...is the Obama administration going to investigate !!! Look, a lot of us are concerned about "idiots" with cell phones.....have seen about three "near-miss" accidents in the last two days........but, don't you think that should be a STATE/LOCAL issue ??

[underdogus09]

"U.S. Worried About Drivers Who Text"now back to the real news:US military deaths in Afghanistan region at 686

By The Associated Press (AP) ? 10 hours ago

As of Monday, Aug. 3, 2009, at least 686 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Monday at 10 a.m. EDT.

Of those, the military reports 514 were killed by hostile action