Updated 7:02 p.m., Tuesday Sept. 13
The National Transportation Security Board on Tuesday recommended that all 50 states and D.C. pass legislation banning commercial truck drivers from using mobile phones to talk and text, including hands-free devices, except in emergencies.
“Distracted driving is becoming increasingly prevalent, exacerbating the danger we encounter daily on our roadways,”said NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman in a release. “It can be especially lethal when the distracted driver is at the wheel of a vehicle that weighs 40 tons and travels at highway speeds.”
The independent government investigative agency, which looks into the nation’s worst crashes on land, sea and air, doesn’t actually have the power to impose rules of its own and instead issues recommendations to other agencies and state governments.
The cell phone ban was one of 15 new such recommendations made Monday by NTSB and directed to some seven distinct agencies, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and all 50 states.
The NTSB’s five-member board voted in favor of the measures after hearing a report from investigators concerning the March 2010 fatal crash of a truck-tractor semitrailor into a 15-passenger van near Mundfordville, Kentucky, resulting in the deaths of the driver and 12 of the van’s occupants.
The truck driver, Kenneth Laymon, 45, had placed a call lasting only 1 second at the time he crossed a 60-foot median and collided with the van. But he had apparently been talking and texting in the hours leading up to the accident, The Associated Press reported.
Laymon’s wife said that he had been using a hands-free device and said “I don’t want him perceived to be another incompetent driver who killed people.”
NTSB Chair Deborah Hersman acknowledged the agency’s decision “may not be something that’s widely embraced. This is not going to be popular. But, we’re not here to be popular. We’re here to do what needs to be done.”
At the same time, it’s worth noting that 9 states already prohibit all drivers from using handheld phones while driving. Another 34 states and D.C. ban texting by all drivers.
In fact, a May survey by ZoomSafer found that commercial trucking companies already lead the way when it comes to strict no-mobile phones while driving policies.
The survey reported that ” 62% of companies have implemented a written cell phone use policy. Long-haul trucking and local trucking companies were the most likely to have a written cell phone policy (71% and 83% respectively) while home and business services companies were least likely (< 50%)." Of course, the long hours and extended time away from home experienced by the nation's long-haul truckers would seem to make them more prone to use cell phones to stay in touch with loved ones. As a dispatcher wrote in a moving op-ed in the Minnesota Star Tribune in August: ” Most of these guys are gone 10 days, and home for a day and a half, and take home an average of $500 a week if everything goes well.”
We’ve reached out to industry groups the American Trucking Associations and CTIA, The Wireless Association, for their responses to the news and will update when we receive a response.
Late update: CTIA responds. John Walls, vice president for public affairs, sent the following statement to TPM via email: “Accidents that involve any of the numerous driving distractions are unfortunate, and those resulting in loss of life are tragic. The wireless industry has been educating drivers about the dangers of distracted driving for more than a decade, and does not oppose legislation that restricts the use of wireless communication by drivers.”
