US Safety Agency Withheld Dangers of Using Cellphones While Driving

According to a report by the New York Times, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gathered hundreds of pages of research and warnings about the hazards of drivers using cell phones, but withheld the information from the public in part out of fear of angering Congress.

The former head of the traffic safety agency, Dr. Jeffrey Runge, told The New York Times that he was urged to withhold the findings to avoid antagonizing members of Congress who warned the agency against lobbying states. Runge said transit officials told him he could jeopardize billions of dollars of its financing if Congress thought the agency had crossed the line into lobbying, the Times said.

The research findings were obtained by the Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen through Freedom of Information requests, the Times said.

The 266-page NHTSA report shows that there were 995 deaths and 240,000 accidents caused by drivers distracted by cellphones in 2002.

The research mirrors other studies about the dangers of multitasking behind the wheel. Research shows that motorists talking on a phone are four times as likely to crash as other drivers, and are as likely to cause an accident as someone with a .08 blood alcohol content.

The three-person research team based the fatality and accident estimates on studies that quantified the risks of distracted driving, and an assumption that 6 percent of drivers were talking on the phone at a given time. That figure is roughly half what the Transportation Department assumes to be the case now.

Draft recommendations from NHTSA included that "drivers not use these devices when driving except in an emergency."

(July 21, 2009)

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