AMERICAN SOCIETY
OF SAFETY ENGINEERS
1800 East Oakton Street
Des Plaines, Illinois 60018-2187
847.699.2929
FAX 847.296.3769
www.asse.org
January 30, 2013
Senator Steve Farley
Arizona State Senate
1700 West Washington Street
Phoenix, AZ 85007
sfarley@azleg.gov
RE: ASSE Support for SB 1218
Dear Senator Farley:
On behalf of its nearly 600 members who live and work in Arizona,
the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) supports your bill,
SB 1218, to prohibit text messaging while operating a motor vehicle in
Arizona. Passing SB 1218 into law would be a significant first step for
Arizona in addressing the deadly and, to the economy of Arizona,
expensive risk of distracted driving on the state’s highways.
Founded in 1911, ASSE is the nation’s oldest and largest safety, health
and environmental (SH&E) professional membership organization.
Our members work with employers in every industry and across the
globe to help see that workers can go home safe and healthy to their
families each day. Their interest in supporting your bill is based on the
fact that, by far, the leading cause of a worker never again being able
to making it home are incidents that occur on highways. Arizona’s
best employers rely on our members to establish company safety
policies that ban employee use of electronic devices while driving on
the job. All Arizonans should be able to benefit from the same
2
common sense approach leaders in the business community use to help keep
employees alive.
The arguments for banning texting and the use of electronic devices while
driving are well known and detailed in policy positions taken by both ASSE
(http://www.asse.org/professionalaffairs_new/positions/ddmv.php) and the
National Safety Council
(http://www.nsc.org/safety_road/Employer%20Traffic%20Safety/Pages/Natio
nalDistractedDriving.aspx). Perhaps most startling is a study by the Virginia
Tech Transportation Institute that found texting in heavy vehicles increases
the risk of a crash or a near crash event more than 23 times over nondistracted driving, a factor that is four times greater than any other distracted
driving associated with electronic devices (http://www.vtti.vt.edu/PDFs/7-2209-VTTI-Press_Release_Cell_phones_and_Driver_Distraction.pdf). Due to
the overwhelming evidence of the significant risk texting while driving poses,
39 states and the District of Columbia already have taken the logical measure
of banning texting (http://www.iihs.org/laws/cellphonelaws.aspx).
The cost Arizona faces by not joining with this majority of states is dramatic.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimates that 22 percent of
crashes are linked to cell phone use while driving, a significant underestimate,
it believes. (http://www.iihs.org/research/qanda/cellphones.aspx). If at least
22 percent of crashes are due to cell phone use, then, of the 825 deaths and
49,550 injuries on Arizona’s roads in 2011
(http://www.azdot.gov/mvd/statistics/crash/PDF/11crashfacts.pdf) a realistic
assumption can be made that 181 deaths and 10,901 injuries in Arizona could
be linked to this risk. Likewise, the economic toll these losses take on the
state and its people must be taken into account. The Arizona Department of
Transportation has estimated that vehicle crashes cost Arizona $2.9 billion in
economic losses. Again, if 22 percent of those crashes involved cell phone
use, the state lost $638 million in 2011 because of this unchecked driving risk.
ASSE’s policy position on distracted driving calls for a ban on the use of any
electronic device for any purpose while operating a motor vehicle. The
National Safety Council also supports a total ban. Together with adequate
education, especially for teen drivers, and a commitment from Arizona and
stakeholders in this issue to spread the message about the risks posed by the
use of electronic devices while driving, a total ban should be Arizona’s goal.
However, ASSE understands that taking a first step in addressing this risk is
often the most important step. Passage of your bill, SB 1218, into law would
be a significant commitment to making Arizona’s highways safer.
ASSE applauds your efforts to provide leadership in addressing distracted
driving risks and encourages you to work with our Arizona members. Their
expertise in understanding how to protect workers on the highway should be
3
seen as a valuable resource in helping keep all Arizonans safe. We look
forward to supporting their efforts.
Sincerely,
Richard A. Pollock, CSP
President
cc:
Shari Di Peso, President, ASSE Southern Arizona Chapter, Tucson
Tim Page-Bottorff, President, ASSE Arizona Chapter, Phoenix
Mark Grushka