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Distracted driving is about to take center stage. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will host a Distracted Driving Summit September 30 and October 1 to see what USDOT and individual states can do to reduce the incidence of distracted driving. What exactly is “distracted driving?” The phrase is often used to refer to talking on cell phones or sending text messages while driving. Seventeen states already ban texting while driving in some form, and several other states are considering measures. In addition, five states have authorized individual municipalities to enact local bans on cell phone usage by vehicle operators; nine other state impose texting bans on new drivers.

Technology designed to work with GPS-enabled phones may have the last word when it comes to texting-while-driving. Salt Lake City-based Safe Driving Systems Corp., is about to introduce Key2SafeDriving, a system that hijacks a user’s phone when it is inside a vehicle and the car is in motion. The driver can still place outgoing emergency calls, but the system intercepts incoming calls and text messages, and puts the kibosh on non-emergency outbound calls with a Bluetooth-enabled keypad lock that activates when the car is rolling. The software application is designed to work with Windows Mobile phones and will set you back about $100.

A similar product is on the way from Aegis Mobility of Vancouver. According to the company, DriveAssist will be available on a monthly subscription basis for $6-$12 per month.

If the idea of having a cell phone nanny smacks a bit of “Stop-Me-Before-I-Kill-Again” it does. Parents of teenage drivers may find the products interesting enough to bite, but a growing number of drivers don’t see any major problems with multitasking while piloting a 3,000-lb vehicle down the road at freeway speed. That, more than the distracted driving itself, is the real problem; it’s also precisely why cell phone nannies won’t have a major impact on dangerous behind-the-wheel behavior.

States have waged years-long wars on impaired driving and have seen only modest reductions in the number of DUI arrests. On a positive note however, most sober people agree that drunk driving is a problem. States now face the same battle with an increasing population of drivers who have convinced themselves that while cell phone usage while driving is bad, they themselves possess the near-perfect ability to do at least one other thing that involves a handheld device while navigating traffic circles at rush hour.

Combatting the perception that distracted driving is OK will take the combined efforts of state governments, the US Department of Transportation, cell phone manufacturers, insurers, vehicle manufacturers, and law enforcement agencies. It will also require the driving (and riding) public to endure a growing number of roadway fatalities that can be directly attributed to distracted driving before things will improve.

Photo Credit: Tim Caynes, via Flickr