MASSPIRG Supports Important Road Safety Legislation

MASSPIRG submitted testimony to the State House’s Joint Committee on Transportation in support of important legislation that will make our roads safer:

Testimony to the Joint Committee on Transportation

March 28, 2019

H.3179: An Act requiring the hands-free use of mobile telephones while driving

Position: Favorable

H.3118/S.2042: An Act to reduce traffic fatalities

Position: Favorable

MASSPIRG is a statewide non-profit, non-partisan, public interest group that stands up to powerful interests whenever they threaten our health and safety, our financial security or our right to fully participate in our democratic society. MASSPIRG supports the transition to a clean and accessible 21st transportation system, where walking, biking, and transit options are robust and safe, and where the air is cleaner and the people are healthier. For more information, contact Matt Casale at [email protected].

H.3179: An Act requiring the hands-free use of mobile telephones while driving

This bill authorizes police officers to stop and issue citations to motorists using handheld mobile

electronic devices. It also sets a penalty of $100 for a first offense, a fine of $250 for a second offense and a fine of $500 for a third or subsequent offense.

Distracted driving has burgeoned with the proliferation of cell phones, global positioning systems and other in-vehicle and personal electronic devices. Annually more than 3,300 people are killed and an additional 400,000 are injured in the United States in distracted driving crashes. Evidence suggests that all-driver bans on hand-held phone conversations have resulted in long-term reductions in hand-held phone use, and drivers in ban states reported higher rates of hands-free phone use and lower overall phone use compared with drivers in non-ban states.

We should not accept deaths and injuries on our roads when they are preventable. It is clear that cell phone use by drivers poses a danger to pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers. This bill is essential to making our roads safer for all users.

We respectfully request a favorable report on H.3179: An Act requiring the hands-free use of mobile telephones while driving.

H.3118/S.2042: An Act to reduce traffic fatalities

This bill includes important provisions that will make roads in Massachusetts safer for all users, including:

• Lowering the default speed limit on state highways and parkways in thickly settled areas from 30 mph to 25 mph;

• Equipping state and state-contracted trucks with safety side guards and additional mirrors to minimize blind spots and reduce fatalities of people walking and biking;

• Defining ‘vulnerable road users’ to include people walking and biking; roadside workers like tow-truck drivers and State Troopers; people using wheelchairs, scooters, skateboards, roller skates, etc.;

• Setting a safe passing distance of vulnerable road users of at least three feet

• Developing a standardized analysis tool to be used to report crashes and incidents involving a person biking or walking.

• More police officers die each year in traffic incidents than from any other cause, including shootings. Many of these deaths occur on the roadside as officers perform their duties outside of their vehicles (for example, when they pull a car over on the highway, and have to walk to and stand outside of the car). Between 2008 and 2017, 554 police officers died in traffic-related events.

The high level of pedestrian and cyclist deaths are attributed to a number of likely causes, including increased distracted driving due to cell phone use and the increasing shift in U.S. vehicle sales away from passenger cars to light trucks and SUVs (with light trucks and SUVs generally causing more severe pedestrian impacts than cars).

A highlight of this bill is the emphasis on new standards for truck safety. During a crash with a truck or other vehicle with high ground clearance, vulnerable road users can fall into the exposed space between the front and rear wheels and suffer fatal crushing injuries. This is dangerous for drivers, but also very dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians. While large trucks comprise 4 percent of registered vehicles, large trucks are involved in 10 percent of pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities. Side guards are a proven way to help prevent underride crashes. Side guards work by physically covering that exposed space, shielding vulnerable road users from being swept underneath the truck’s rear wheels.

There is no question that we need to do more to keep people safe on our roads, especially pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable road users.

We respectfully request a favorable report on H.3118/S.2042: An Act to reduce traffic fatalities.