American Society s3

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF SAFETY ENGINEERS 1800 East Oakton Street Des Plaines, Illinois 60018-2187 847.699.2929 FAX 847.296.3769 www.asse.org

March 25, 2013

Senator Nancy Detert 416 Senate Office Building 404 South Monroe Street Tallahassee, FL 32399-1100 [email protected]

RE: ASSE Support for “Florida Ban on Texting While Driving Law” (SB 52)

Dear Senator Detert:

On behalf of its nearly 1200 members who live and work in Florida, the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) supports your bill, SB 52, to prohibit text messaging while operating a motor vehicle in Florida. Passing SB 52 into law would be a significant first step for Florida in addressing the deadly and, to the economy of Florida, 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. Florida’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 Floridians should be able to benefit from the same 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/NationalDistractedDriving.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 non-distracted driving, a factor that is four times greater than any other distracted driving associated with electronic devices (http://www.vtti.vt.edu/PDFs/7-22-09-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 Florida 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 2400 deaths and 195,401 injuries on Florida’s roads in 2011 (https://www.firesportal.com/Pages/Public/documents/2011CrashFacts/Officia l2011CrashFacts.pdf) a realistic assumption can be made that 528 deaths and 42,988 injuries in Florida 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 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that vehicle crashes cost Florida $3.16 billion in economic losses (http://www.cdc.gov/Motorvehiclesafety/statecosts/fl.html). Again, if 22 percent of those crashes involved cell phone use, the state’ economy loses $695 million per year 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 Florida 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 Florida’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 52, into law would be a significant commitment to making Florida’s highways safer.

ASSE applauds your efforts to provide leadership in addressing distracted driving risks and encourages you to work with our Florida members. Their expertise in understanding how to protect workers on the highway should be seen as a valuable resource in helping keep all Floridians safe. We look forward to supporting their efforts.

Sincerely, 3

Richard A. Pollock, CSP President cc: Karen Johnson, President, Cape Canaveral Chapter, Cocoa Beach [email protected] Jennifer Zipeto, President, Central Florida Chapter, Orlando [email protected] Michael Adams, Florida Suncoast Chapter, Ft. Meyers [email protected] Yaniv Zagagi, North Florida Chapter, Jacksonville [email protected] John Davis, President, Pensacola Chapter [email protected] C. Scott, President, South Florida Chapter, Miami [email protected] Julia Bradley, West Florida Chapter, St. Petersburg [email protected]