WASHINGTON (AP) --
As long as there have been cars, there have been drivers who pay more attention to their radios, friends, grooming or eating than to steering.
Add in newfangled distractions -- cellular phones, navigation systems, TVs, on-board computers -- and the potential for dangerous lapses of attention are even greater.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been studying the issue and planned a public hearing Tuesday to hear what others think should be done. There is also an ongoing Internet forum for those who couldn't make it to the Washington meeting.
"There are a lot of things that have been with us for a long time, and lately there have been some new things," said NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson. "With technology emerging as fast as new vehicle technology, it's very difficult for us to try to keep up."
Automakers say they are also concerned about putting drivers in danger with new high-tech gadgets and welcome NHTSA's probe, as long as the agency doesn't start regulating what they install in new vehicles.
"Now with the roads becoming more congested and longer commutes and people spending more time in their cars, people want to do more as well," said Rob Strassburger, vice president of safety for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. "We are a customer driven set of companies, but we also need to make sure that what we are doing doesn't have the potential to distract."
The automakers and groups that provide the high-tech instruments, such as the cellular phone industry, stress that they are not to blame for accidents that may occur when drivers are using new devices that are often meant to improve safety.
"It boils down to driver responsibility," said Lisa Ihde, manager of wireless education programs for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. "Your first response when you are driving a car is to drive safely.
"If you are driving through a congested area, through a work zone or in a parking area, you shouldn't be paying attention to the kids in the back seat, the CD, the hamburger or the phone ringing."
No state bans the use of wireless phones in automobiles, and only California, Florida and Massachusetts have laws limiting cell phone use in moving vehicles, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Dozens of U.S. communities are considering restrictions on cell phone use by drivers.
Several countries have banned the use of cell phones while driving. A 1997 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that talking on a phone while driving quadrupled the risk of an accident and was almost as dangerous as being drunk behind the wheel.
According to the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety, which has organized a campaign encouraging responsible use of new vehicle technologies, distracted drivers cause at least 4,000 accidents a day and perhaps as many as 8,000.
Thomas Dingus of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, who has been studying the distractions for 15 years, said his research shows that tuning the radio has about the same accident rate as new simple mapping systems.
"If we are willing to accept that level of risk, there is room to add features to the car that would increase convenience, but you have to be very, very careful when you do that," he said.
Dingus said crashes will increase significantly if the systems are not designed with maximum safety benefits in mind.
"I think it's feasible, but it think we need more and better information, we need more work, we need better designs, we need systems that don't allow them to do all these things at once," he said.
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