Second Distracted Driving Summit in September Promises More Advances
The second Distracted Driving Summit will be held in September this year in Washington DC.
Last year’s first ever Distracted Driving Summit was followed by major advances in combating the effect of technological distractions behind the wheel. Since that Summit in October, the federal administration has banned texting while driving for commercial bus and truck drivers. There is also a national ban on the use of cell phones while driving for federal government employees. The first Distracted Driving Summit also resulted in a lot of media coverage about the problem of cell phone use and texting while driving, and several states have enacted some sort of legislation to tackle the problem. Besides, there is now an organization dedicated to lobbying against cell phone use while driving. The group is called Focus Driven, and hopes to do for distracted driving what Mothers against Drunk Driving has done for impaired driving.
The Department of Transportation is currently involved in funding a crackdown on distracted driving in the state of New York. The agency is investing more than $300,000 in these efforts. The campaign involves education, awareness, flyers and enforcement. If the campaign is found to be successful in reducing cell phone use while driving in Syracuse, it could be extended to other cities in New York State, and even the country.
Considering the great strides that have been made since the first summit, New Jersey personal injury lawyers, and highway safety groups will be hopeful that the second summit to will increase momentum on this issue. As a New Jersey car accident lawyer, I would like to see more and tougher enforcement of our own handheld cell phone and texting bans.
