Ray LaHood, the U.S. transportation secretary, recommended today that automakers equip new cars with controls to disable some kinds of in-vehicle technology while the car is in motion -- to limit the safety hazard of distracting drivers with communication, entertainment and other functions that are not required to operate the car safely. [See 2/16/12 story.]

The driver would have to stop the car and put the transmission in "park" to perform functions on built-in gadgets including texting, Web browsing, 10-digit phone dialing, and viewing more than 30 characters of a text message unrelated to driving. 

These functions would be enabled in moving cars only for devices that are used by passengers and cannot be viewed by drivers. ... [MORE]

This week the National Transportation Safety Board said North Carolina and the other 49 states should ban practically all use of cell phones (including the hands-free variety that some folks think is safer) and other portable electronic devices while driving. [12/20 update: Car-phoning is a convenient habit that would be hard to give up. See today's Road Worrier column with a vigorous debate in the comment section, and add your thoughts.]

Is this a great idea, or is it going way too far? Does phoning make you dangerous behind the wheel -- or are you confident that you won't kill yourself while you're yakking with your secretary or your boyfriend?  I'm writing about this Monday. Please let me hear from you by email, with your name and daytime contact info. Or call me 919-829-4527.

This far-reaching recommendation came after NTSB blamed a texting driver for starting a chain-reaction pileup in Missouri in August 2010, in which two people were killed and 38 others were injured. As the Associated Press reported:

"According to NHTSA [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration], more than 3,000 people lost their lives last year in distraction-related accidents", said [NTSB] Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman. "It is time for all of us to stand up for safety by turning off electronic devices when driving."

"No call, no text, no update, is worth a human life."

Critics protested that NTSB was over-reaching. ... [MORE]

The National Transportation Safety Board wants all states to ban texting, emailing or using a cellphone while driving except for emergencies. Whether you agree with a ban or not, it doesn't take long on the road to see why.

Our streets and highways are infested with distracted drivers. I confess succumbing on occasion to fiddling with navigation or browsing my music more than I think I should. Many mistake hand-free devices as a solution, but it is the concentration not the hands that is the main danger.

If we're going to ban cell phone use, why stop there? I've witnessed a number of drivers distracted by eating, adjusting the stereo, and even changing clothes.

Should two adults be required to ride with children to prevent the driver from being distracted?

Maybe conversation between drivers and passengers should be limited 140 characters or less.

This new video, produced in-house at NCDOT, is all about what not to do when you need to be paying attention to the road.

OK, in my clumsy wording I gave some readers the wrong impression when I confessed to a weakness for using my smart phone when I drive, in ways that are not smart (see today's Road Worrier column, with reader comments).

Actually I'm not begging the General Assembly to halt my risky behavior. I'm getting around to making a 2011 resolution that I will halt it, myself.

I tried not to be smug about my successful vow to quit talking on the phone while I drive ... [MORE]

Cell phones, not six-packs, are the big culprit in the rise in fatal nighttime crashes involving teen drivers, according to a new report from the Teens in the Driver Seat Center of the Texas Transportation Institute.

In fatal nighttime crashes from 1999 to 2008, alcohol increased as a factor where drivers were over 20 years old -- but alcohol involvement declined in crashes where drivers were 16 to 19. Overall crash deaths have declined across the United States, but fatal nighttime crashes have increased, a press release said:

Russell Henk, a senior research engineer for TTI, noted that nighttime driving is the most common, documented factor associated with crashes involving young drivers. ... [MORE]

A father and daughter spoke candidly about how they text and telephone while they drive, and they got a lot of readers talking -- mostly, talking trash about the two of them.

As Buckley Strandberg said Tuesday (see this week's Road Worrier column with reader comments), he and his daughter Tyler were flamed online and harassed in real life after they discussed their driving habits in a Jan. 24 story ("Two can't stop phoning while driving").

Online editors at The N&O disabled online comments in the Jan. 24 story, because so many of them violated N&O guidelines against personal attack. But so far at least, there are dozens of comments online with this week's follow-up report.

And when they were republished at the Charlotte Observer's website, the Jan. 24 story and this week's follow-up drew more than 100 online comments apiece.

A Charlotte reader called meh4669 said the Strandberg stories, and the photos of Tyler's wrecked cars, should make other drivers think about being more careful:

I am not defending using cell phones while driving.

However, instead of being so critical of these two people who are trying to help the general population with their stories, how about we try to help those around us by reminding them that accidents such as those caused by the Strandbergs can really happen. I'm 100% certain that your grandchildren, children, friends, or other family members text or talk while driving, so why don't we show them these pictures and do something about it???

Ray LaHood, the U.S. transportation secretary, today announced a new ban on texting by drivers of trucks, large buses and other commercial vehicles.

“We want the drivers of big rigs and buses and those who share the roads with them to be safe,” LaHood said in a press release. “This is an important safety step and we will be taking more to eliminate the threat of distracted driving.”

The new ban takes effect immediately, outawing the use of phones and other wireless devices to send or receive e-mail and other text messages. It applies to interstate truckers and to commercial bus or van drivers who carry more than 8 passengers.

Drivers who text while driving commercial vehicles may be subject to civil or criminal penalties of up to $2,750.

"Our regulations will help prevent unsafe activity within the cab,” said Anne Ferro, administrator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). “We want to make it crystal clear to operators and their employers that texting while driving is the type of unsafe activity that these regulations are intended to prohibit."

Federal research shows that drivers who send and receive text messages take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds out of every 6 seconds while texting.

Also at today's telephone press conference on the new rules, The News & Observer asked LaHood if he plans to announce high-speed rail grants on Thursday. His answer:

"Soon. Soon. Very soon. Thank you for your interest in high-speed rail."

They aren't defending themselves. They hope some good will come out of Sunday's N&O story about their driving-phoning-texting habits.

Tyler and Buckley Strandberg are feeling the heat of heavy online flaming. The N&O online editors disabled the online comment function for the story Sunday afternoon. (We have rules against personal attack, and there was a lot of that.)

Lots of readers have e-mailed me directly to criticize the Strandbergs. One of them shared his angry but anonymous vow, in all capital letters, to have both of them removed from the highways and their cars impounded.

Meanwhile, the Strandbergs have responded. Here's an e-mail Buckley Strandberg copied to me Sunday: ... [MORE]

"Where is the uproar from people about driving while impaired by cell phones?"

That rhetorical question was posted online before sunrise this morning by a reader identified as jsmart71 -- at 6:18 a.m. already the seventh person to comment on today's story about a daughter, who has wrecked three cars while phoning and texting, and her father, who also texts and talks behind the wheel (see the story with more reader comments).

Where's the uproar? Here it is. A few dozen more readers have chimed in since 6:18 a.m., many expressing outrage, hurling insults and recommending all sorts of punishment for Tyler and Buckley Strandberg.

Some people find it hard to believe that any drivers spend so much time thumbing and talking into their phones (and one reader has declared the story fraudulent).

But several commenters add their own stories -- not confessions of being distracted by their own phones, but scary encounters with other phone-distracted drivers.

And one of these readers, using the name thejerkstorecalled, thanks the Strandbergs for 'fessing up: ... [MORE]