Kudos to Assemblyman Jim Frazier (D-Oakley) for releasing a Press Release today regarding a study that came out last week which proves voice-activated in-car texting is more distracting and dangerous than talking on a cell phone.
A study done by the University of Utah confirmed previous results. Fraziers bill, Assembly Bill 313 would have banned the voice texting option while driving. Its aimed at reducing the risk of distracted driving and preventing unnecessary accidents.
The bill has stalled in committee since May 1 and I’ve been told its been “parked” for the remainder of the year after automobile manufacturers successfully “flipped” members of the committee votes who previously supported the bill. The goal in parking the bill is so it can come up again in January 2014 instead of 2015 which is procedural move.
Here is today’s Press Release:
Assemblymember Jim Frazier Issues Statement on New Research Revealing the Dangers of Voice-Activated In-Car Texting
Sacramento, CA – Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D-Oakley) gave the following statement regarding new research which proves that voice-activated in-car texting is more distracting and dangerous than talking on a cell phone:
This new in-depth study, performed for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety by researchers at the University of Utah, confirms what previous studies have shown — that voice-activated in-car texting is deadly. My bill, AB 313, would have banned this dangerous practice, but unfortunately the automobile manufacturers were successful in killing the bill by claiming that voice-activated texting is safe. I hope this study will change the misconceptions that some of my colleagues have so we can reduce accidents, injuries and fatalities by passing AB 313.
The study, “Measuring Cognitive Distraction in the Automobile,” can be found here.
To contact Assemblymember Jim Frazier please visit his website at http://www.asmdc.org/members/a11/ or call his District Office at 707-399-3011.
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5 comments
Nice to see that more focus is being placed on all the distractions in vehicles now. I’d have liked to see the study include the GPS units in a lot of cars now, along with all the other distractions they tested. Of course, all the laws on the books will not stop people from texting while driving, speech or manual entry. The genie is out of the bottle on this one, and getting it back in will prove difficult.
Medium Rare,
You ought to take a drive to Nevada where they have a zero tolerance for the use cell phones/texting while driving. You get caught there and in many counties it is a mandatory court appearance. You don’t get to “mail it in”.
Every other commercial on TV re-enforces the message.
They have been extremely successful at putting the genie back in the bottle. So yeah, laws do work-especially when they hit you hard in the pocket book and punch a huge hole in your schedule.
So much for your assumptions.
Nevada is smarter than California. It took them to put OJ where he belongs. A stupid liberal California jury couldn’t.
Hey Joe – “Nevada is smarter than California. It took them to put OJ where he belongs. A stupid liberal racist California jury couldn’t.”
Fixed it for you!
It takes a stupid politician to keep adding new laws when the state doesn’t enforce many of the existing laws they have. The politicians need to take the laws that are not working and amend them instead of making costly new ones.
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