Traffic Payout

Last week the Governors Highway Safety Association released the report, "Curbing Distracted Driving: 2010 Survey of State Safety Programs." The study cites the increasing number of states who are addressing the issue of distracted driving by collecting data and incorporating distraction into more educational materials for drivers. The report states that twenty-seven states and D.C. have made Distracted Driving a priority in their Strategic Highway Safety Plans and thirty-seven states and D.C. have public information or education campaigns warning drivers about the dangers of distracted driving.

It’s wonderful to hear more states are becoming engaged in this issue and I applaud GHSA for its research. We must keep in mind that the goal of our collective efforts is to actually change driver behavior so that our roads are safer and passing legislation is one step in this direction. As GHSA Chairman Vernon F. Betkey Jr. recently said, “We need to create a traffic safety culture that does not condone driving while distracted much like we have done with drink driving.” I wholeheartedly agree with this assessment and even touched on the very same point in a recent radio interview. All of us need recognize the severity of the problem and do our part to help change things – starting with our own driving behavior.