Using Cell Phones on the Road

When a Boston trolley rear-ended another trolley in May, sending 49 people to the hospital, the cause turned out to be texting. The 24-year-old conductor was texting his girlfriend, reported the Boston Globe.

Last September, a Metrolink engineer in the Los Angeles area caused fatalities when he was texting a teen-ager. It was the nation's worst train crash in 15 years, killing 25 people, including the engineer. Read more here.

Clearly, texting while driving can be deadly.

To ensure a safe ride here at METRO, we have a strict cell phone policy for our bus operators. The policy states that "the use of cellular phones including hands-free and/or other electronic devices, except for the bus or rail radio, while operating a METRO vehicle, is prohibited and will result in termination of employment for the offender."

The policy refers to all METRO buses, trains, trucks and non-revenue vehicles (company cars driven by employees that do not pick up paying passengers).

Operators may not have their cell phones visible at all. They must be turned off and tucked away in a bag - out of sight and out of reach.

Should an emergency occur and the operator need to call the dispatcher, the operator should pull the bus to a safe location, set the brake, secure the bus, exit the bus and then make the call. This would be a rare and unusual circumstance.

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has championed the cause of no texting while driving, calling for a summit on distracted driving late next month. Read LaHood's announcement here.

The New York Times reports on pros and cons of laws that ban texting. For example, the Governors Highway Safety Association advocates no texting while driving, but opposes laws that can't be enforced. But safety advocates say laws can help change behavior, such as happened with seat belt laws.

Meanwhile, LaHood's summit is attracting a lot of attention.

"Everywhere I've gone since the announcement, people have been telling me the distracted driving horror stories they've witnessed or been victims of," writes LaHood on his blog, The Fast Lane.  "Letting your concentration drift, for any reason, while driving, endangers your life and the lives of others."

The grandfather of nine grandchildren, LaHood also reminds readers that as back-to-school schedules gear up, it's time to take this message seriously.

Here in Houston, drivers need to change their habits when driving through school zones. A state law that goes into effect Sept. 1 prohibits drivers from using a wireless device or cell phone when they are driving through school zones when the lights are blinking.

What do you think? Should texting while driving be banned? If so, how enforceable is that? What about software that allows your speech to be converted to text and vice versa? Would that be less distracting?