Secretary LaHood releases ‘Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving’
Washington, District of Columbia – June 7, 2012
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has released a document entitled ‘Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving’ as a comprehensive step-by-step plan that states, businesses, and individuals can incorporate into their everyday lives.
The document can be downloaded from the Department of Transportation website here, but its main points are as follows: establishing anti-distracted driving legislation in the remaining 11 states that do not currently have any laws in this area, asking the automotive industry to look into ways to lower the risk of distracted driving from the technological features currently in place within today’s vehicles, partnering with driver’s education instructors and schools to educate their students on the dangers of distracted driving, and calling on all Americans to advocate for distraction-free vehicles and roadways by not only choosing to not drive with distraction, but encouraging others to choose to not drive with distraction as well.
In addition to releasing this plan, Secretary LaHood announced that the Department of Transportation will be providing $2.4 million in funding to anti-distracted driving pilot programs in California and Delaware beginning in the fall of 2012 along the same lines as the successful ‘Click It or Ticket It’ pro-safety belt campaign. Smaller scale programs in Hartford, Connecticut and Syracuse, New York cut distracted driving by at least 25 percent according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Secretary LaHood believes that legislation and regulation, awareness, and individual responsibility are the keys to a distraction-free America. Let’s do our part and choose to be distraction-free.
