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LaHood: local police could benefit from subsidies to help curb distracted driving

HARTFORD, Conn. — Distracted-driving violations have fallen dramatically in Hartford and Syracuse, N.Y., as a result of high-visibility police programs and cash-strapped police departments around the country could benefit from subsidies to enforce bans against talking and texting while driving, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Monday.

But critics say that money may be hard to come by as states that are wrangling with major deficits.

Each of the pilot programs in the two Northeastern cities relied on $300,000 — $200,000 in federal money and $100,000 from the state — to pay police departments to enforce the state's distracted driving laws and advertise about the issue.

Citations were issued to almost 10,000 drivers in each city over the past year. The idea was to see whether stepped-up enforcement would lead to fewer violations.

Hartford had a 57 percent drop in talking while driving and a nearly 75 percent drop in texting and driving, transportation officials said. Syracuse saw a 33 percent drop in distracted driving. The study's reports were based on observational studies.

LaHood said Monday on a conference call with reporters that he knows police departments are constrained by budget problems.

"We're not faulting police departments. They have many things that they have to do," LaHood said.

LaHood, who said distracted driving kills thousands of people every year, wants the federal government to help pay for similar subsidy programs elsewhere. He said the study proved tough laws, strong enforcement and public awareness made the difference in reducing violations.

David Teater, a senior director at the nonprofit National Safety Council in Itasea, Ill., said the cost saved from accidents averted far outstrips the expense of such programs.

"I think it's a no-brainer when it comes to the cost," Teater said.

But funding for expanded enforcement programs might be difficult to find.

Jonathan Adkins, a spokesman for the nonprofit Governors Highway Safety Association in Washington, D.C., said it will be difficult to keep up any such enforcement programs as states make severe cutbacks to close budget deficits.

"You have to be able to sustain these types of campaigns," Adkins said. "If the public doesn't expect to get a ticket, we would expect usage to go back up."

Adkins said the priority of his organization, which represents highway safety agencies in every state, remains on the three top issues: seat belt usage, drunk driving and speeding.

The pilot efforts used “Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other” as the media campaign theme and were structured similarly to the highly-successful national seat belt campaign, “Click It or Ticket.” 

During four periods of stepped up enforcement over the past year, Syracuse police issued 9,587 citations for driver violations involving talking or texting on cell phones while operating a vehicle. During the same period, police in Hartford, Conn., issued 9,658 tickets for illegal phone use.

Before and after each enforcement wave, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) actively observed cell phone use and conducted public awareness surveys at driver licensing offices in the two cities, which found:

In Syracuse, because of high-visibility enforcement — both handheld cell phone use and texting behind the wheel have declined by one-third. In Hartford, where researchers initially identified drivers talking on their cell phones at twice the frequency (which left more room for improvement), there was a 57 percent drop in handheld use and texting behind the wheel dropped by nearly three-quarters. 
 â€œThe success of these pilot programs clearly show that combining strong laws with strong enforcement can bring about a sea change in public attitudes and behavior,” said NHTSA Administrator David Strickland.

“We applaud the work of the men and women of the Syracuse and Hartford police forces, and call on state legislatures, law enforcement and safety advocates across the nation to follow their lead.”

NHTSA plans to test this same three-part formula — tough laws, strong enforcement, and ongoing public awareness — at the state-wide level next.

In 2009, nearly 5,500 fatalities and another half million injuries resulted from crashes involving a distracted driver. Overall, distraction-related fatalities represented 16 percent of total traffic fatalities in 2009.

Nationwide, 34 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam have enacted texting bans. Nine states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands have prohibited all hand-held cell phone use while driving.

To learn more about NHTSA’s efforts on distracted driving visit www.distraction.gov .

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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