Idaho and Alabama Become 37th and 38th States to Ban Texting While Driving

In the past month, two more states have implemented legislation restricting how drivers may use their mobile phones while on the road.

On April 5, Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter signed the state’s ban on texting while driving into law. Idaho, which was the 37th state to enact a state texting ban, will begin enforcing its new law on July 1. The new law will receive primary enforcement – meaning police officers can pull over and cite drivers for texting violations alone – and imposes an $85 fine on violators. It also makes an exception for drivers using voice-activated or hands-free devices to compose text messages while driving.

And yesterday, Alabama became the 38th state to ban texting while driving when Governor Robert Bentley signed into law a bill prohibiting motorists from texting, emailing or instant messaging while behind the wheel. Specifically, Alabama’s texting law reads: “A person may not operate a motor vehicle on a public road, street, or highway in Alabama while using a wireless telecommunication device to write, send, or read a text-based communication.”

Alabama’s law, which goes into effect on August 1, also makes texting, emailing and instant messaging while driving a primary offense. A first offense will cost Alabama drivers a $25 fine – with the rate increasing to up to $75 a pop for subsequent offenses. It does allow for several exceptions, however, as drivers are allowed to:

  • Dial phone numbers
  • Make emergency calls
  • Use their mobile phones for GPS navigation services as long as driving directions are “pre-programmed”

So what impact will these laws have? All of Alabama’s exceptions could make enforcement very difficult as a driver could simply claim he or she was making a phone call or checking directions rather than writing or reading a text or email. According to The Associated Press, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jim McClendon, reportedly explained that law enforcement”officers would be able to use [cell phone] records to prove that a text was sent while a driver was on the road” -  though such records usually require a subpoena and time to receive and review…

Likewise, police in Idaho are somewhat skeptical of the ban’s enforceability and think that catching violators will be purely “situational.” Pocatello Police Department Lt. Paul Manning says, “You’re going to have to catch them in the act,” or investigate drivers’ cell phone records to “reconstruct” a crash, reports the Idaho Reporter.  Such a stance implies that Idaho’s law won’t stop the crash from happening in the first place, but only establish whether a texting driver was the cause.

On the other hand, some Alabama law enforcement officials recognize that texting bans are no silver bullet – but think it could have a positive impact on drivers’ behavior. NBC affiliate WTVA reports Hamilton Police Chief Ralph Conner had this to say:

“Anything that will help bring the traffic death rate down, traffic accidents, insurance rates down, it’s very good. This includes young kids, old kids, people like me, police officers that have data terminals in their cars. We have to watch what we’re doing while we’re driving and it covers us too.”

Meanwhile, the Swedish government just received advice to forget about implementing an anti-texting law because research shows laws do not stop drivers from using their mobile phones.

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[Video] What Happens When People Are Required to “Pass” a Distracted Driving Test?

Watch this brilliant – and frightening video to see what would happen if people were required to pass a test to prove their ability to text while driving before they can qualify for a driver’s license.

…As you can see, it doesn’t go well. You can bet these folks are now part of the 95% of drivers who think texting while driving is dangerous. The question is, though, are they still part of the 35% who text and drive despite knowing how much it raises crash risk?

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Distractions Everywhere: Cell Phone Use While Driving Is a Global Problem

many hands reaching for smartphone Simply telling drivers to stop texting, emailing and browsing when they get behind the wheel of a car just isn’t sufficient to prevent distracted driving.

The temptation to use mobile phones while driving is often overwhelming. While the vast majority of U.S. drivers say they think other drivers’ texting creates traffic danger, a third of those same people also say they text while driving themselves. So why do people do it if they know it’s dangerous? Maybe it’s human nature. Wherever there are cell phones and cars – there are drivers distracted by their mobile devices.

A new Ford survey found that 48% of European drivers check their texts while behind the wheel. The survey of 5,500 drivers from Germany, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy and Russia also found that 95% of drivers think that “texting affect[s] a person’s ability to drive and [is] therefore dangerous.”  That’s right on par with AAA’s survey of American drivers, which found that 95% of U.S. drivers think that other people’s texting while driving is dangerous. It’s interesting to note, however, that more European drivers than American drivers admit to having texted while behind the wheel.

These statistics help make clear why it’s pointless to expect that telling people to put down the phone will magically solve the distracted driving problem. Want more proof? In a report released earlier this month, the Swedish National Road and Transport Institute (VTI), an independent government agency, said that laws banning texting or hand-held mobile phone use while driving aren’t effective. Explained VTI’s Katja Kircher to Sveriges Radio, “We’ve seen that it doesn’t help to have such a law while driving. This is partly because we’ve seen that people wouldn’t adhere to the law, and partly because we’ve seen no effect on crash risks.” The Swedish parliament is currently trying to implement a national ban on hand-held device use while driving, according to Gawker.

And the VTI is not the only agency to come to such a conclusion. In 2010, the U.S.-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released a study showing that anti-texting laws not only fail to reduce texting while driving, but may also increase the number of texting while driving crashes as drivers attempt to evade police.

So what does the VTI recommend instead? A multi-facted, complex solution that emphasizes safe driving technology and education over legislation. “It is our opinion that a combination of different countermeasures – which educate and inform the driver, while at the same time support him or her in a safe usage of communication devices – is preferable to a law against communication device usage while driving,” says the VTI report.

Though stringent enforcement of laws restricting cell phone use while driving can have an impact on people’s behavior, cell phone use bans are difficult and expensive to enforce. Whether here in the U.S. or in Sweden – or anywhere else in the world, really – changing driver behavior is no small feat.

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Distracted Driving Innovation: Four Reasons Why Imitation Is Our Best Friend

This Technology Review article, published yesterday, describes how AT&T has developed a prototype of a cell phone analytics service – quite similar to our very own FleetSafer Vision analytics service. AT&T’s prototype system “merg[es] data from cars’ onboard computers and drivers’ smart phones” to provide a “a cloud-based chaperone for teen drivers.”

FleetSafer Vision, which we launched in January 2011, combines cell phone use data with vehicle use data to enable corporate fleets to measure and manage employee cell phone use while driving.FleetSafer Vision screenshot

After reading the article, a good friend called me on the phone and asked if I was concerned about the news.

Like any entrepreneur working to develop innovative products in a new market, my answer is two-fold.  On one hand, of course I am concerned about potential competition from such a huge player.  On the other hand, I would be far more concerned if we were the only ones innovating in this arena.

The simple truth is that lots of entrepreneurs and start-ups have good ideas – but ideas only have value when there is a market to monetize.  In that sense, the presence of AT&T’s cell phone analytics prototype is comforting to me for four reasons:

  1. It validates the potential market opportunity
  2. It validates ZoomSafer’s hard work and investments over the past three years
  3. It increases confidence as we continue trailblazing our way to a new market
  4. It increases the relevance and value of our existing software, IP and experience

To see for yourself how ZoomSafer’s cell phone analytics service measures and manages employee cell phones use while driving, sign-up for a free, online demo of FleetSafer Vision.

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RIMS 2012: Risk Management Community Identifies Employee Distracted Driving as a Problem

Last week, the ZoomSafer team traveled from our northern Virginia headquarters to Philadelphia to exhibit at the 2012 Risk and Insurance Management Society’s (RIMS) Annual Conference. In between conference sessions, the show floor was bustling – and the #rims2012 Twitter feed was constantly acitve. But live-tweeting the conference wasn’t the only way RIMS and its audience of risk-conscious professionals embraced new technologies.

Risk managers are growing increasingly aware of the issues employee cell phone use while driving can create. And many of the folks who stopped by our booth (like the two shown chatting with VP of Sales Paul Blamer here) were well-versed in the ways employee driving behavior can create problems for an employer. And many attendees were intrigued to learn that technology to monitor and manage that behavior already exists – in the form of our FleetSafer enterprise distracted driving solutions.

Additionally, RIMS included a session on distracted driving on its schedule, “Distracted Driving: Avoid Becoming a Statistic.” This session also included a great presentation from Liberty Mutual on how allowing employees to text, email and browse while driving leaves corporations exposed to vicarious liability and accusations of negligent entrustment. And the best way to reduce those risks? Implement a cell phone use policy – then enforce that cell phone use policy. (I’m pleased to report ZoomSafer earned a shout-out as one such policy enforcement solution.)

At the end of the day, the risks cell phone use while driving creates are not going to magically disappear overnight – and companies are increasingly paying attention and taking proactive steps to manage those risks.

All in all, we greatly enjoyed our time at RIMS. Philadelphia was kind to us: the weather was gorgeous, and the Pennsylvania Convention Center is right next door to the Reading Terminal Market. The markett, which occupies a former train station, is packed with little shops and food stalls – check out this picture for a glimpse.

It’s still National Distracted Driving Awareness Month – so if your company is tackling the problem of employee distracted driving, we want to hear from you! Share your thoughts on employee use of mobile phones while driving in ZoomSafer’s two-minute distracted driving survey, then enter to win a FREE Apple iPad3!

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