NHTSA's Distracted Driving Rules Merit ‘Careful Review’ by DOT, OMB, Says CTA

Proposed National Highway Traffic Safety Administration guidelines on distracted driving typify the type of pending regulations that a Jan. 20 White House memo called on agencies to halt to afford the incoming Trump administration an opportunity to review them. So said CTA President Gary Shapiro in a letter Monday to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Mark Sandy, Office of Management and Budget acting director. CTA thinks the proposed guidelines “raise substantial questions of law and policy,” and therefore “merit a careful review” by DOT and OMB, as the White House memo prescribed, Shapiro said. “While NHTSA maintains that the proposed guidelines would be voluntary and nonbinding, in practice they could have a sweeping effect on the multibillion dollar market for mobile devices and apps.” In the letter, Shapiro repeated what he told the Senate Commerce Committee Feb. 1 when he testified that “by issuing guidelines on how smartphones, tablets and even wearable fitness devices function when near a driver, NHTSA has exceeded its authority and invited uncertainty and litigation” (see 1702010036).