Distracted Driving | featured news

The pilot of a medical helicopter that ran out of fuel and crashed, killing all four people aboard, was distracted by text messages when he should have been conducting pre-flight checks, accident investigators said Tuesday.

We’ve been hearing a lot about the “epidemic” of distracted driving, as U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has dubbed it, and most fingers point to such high-tech diversions as texting and handheld cellphoning.

Federal accident investigators recommended states ban the use of cell phones and other electronic devices by all drivers except in emergencies.

FILE - In this Aug.

Two and a half years into the crusade against distracted driving, automakers are equipping vehicles with new technology that might circumvent the 34 state laws that prohibit text messaging behind the wheel, which 95 percent of Americans say is dangerous.

PhoneGuard is an app which disables a phone's texting functions whenever it detects the user moving more than 10 miles per hour-like when they may be behind the wheel of a car.

Pilot programs to reduce distracted driving show success in Syracuse, N.Y., and Hartford, Conn.

The U.S. Department of Transportation and Consumer Reports magazine have released a poll that illustrates how widespread distracted driving is among young people and a plan to help fight it....

Lawmakers and victims' families will gather in Washington on Tuesday for a summit on distracted driving and the deadly toll it takes.

State police say a truck driver was watching pornographic movies on his laptop computer when his rig struck a disabled car on the New York State Thruway near Buffalo last month, killing the driver.

The debate over distracted driving ramped up a notch on Thursday as Ford Motor Co. announced technology to let computers read their Twitter feeds to them while they're driving.