District police wrote a flurry of tickets for motorists using their cell phones while driving on Tuesday at the scene of a summit called by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to highlight the dangers of distracted driving.
At least 18 drivers were cited on a single block near 9th and K streets NW, where LaHood was hosting the national Distracted While Driving summit.
“I can’t think of another safety issue in American history that’s gained so much traction in such a short period of time,” LaHood said. “We still haven’t solved the problem. Not by a long shot.”
LaHood said distracted driving resulted in 5,474 deaths and 448,000 injuries nationwide last year. The percentage of fatal accidents caused by distracted driving nationwide increased 60 percent in the past five years — from 10 percent in 2005 to 16 percent in 2009, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Locally, police say the issue is on their radar, and some agencies have stepped up enforcement.
The drivers cited near the summit are far from the only ones caught in D.C. this year. Police have issued 661 citations for distracted driving and 9,714 for using a cell phone while driving as of August, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. Those numbers are up from 2008, when police cited 432 people for distracted driving and 12,914 for cell phone use.
“Everybody’s got an iPhone or BlackBerry now,” said MPD spokesman Lt. Nicholas Breul.
Fairfax County police began an initiative earlier this month to crack down on distracted driving by educating drivers and placing officers in high-crash areas to watch for drivers who aren’t paying attention.
On Oct. 1, Maryland will implement a law that bans the use of handheld electronic devices while driving. But it will be a secondary offense, which means drivers can be cited only if they are pulled over for violating another law.
Such policies make it hard to catch violators.
In Virginia, where texting while driving is a secondary offense, Prince William County has cited just 10 drivers this year for texting. Arlington County issued 131 texting citations from January to June.
AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman John Townsend said up to 80 percent of car crashes are caused by some form of distraction, and Maryland and Virginia need to change their distracted-driving laws from secondary to primary.
“Law enforcement officers have to become more vigilant about cracking down,” Townsend said.
Distracted driving is a big problem in the region, he said, pointing to the prevalence of single-vehicle crashes in the area. Out of the 7,945 car crash deaths in the District, Maryland and Virginia between 2004 and 2008, 58.9 percent were the result of a single-vehicle crash where the person was alone and hit an obstacle other than a car.
In such crashes, “distracted driving is a major factor,” Townsend said.
