Talking on the phone while driving is very dangerous, distracting us from watching the road ahead of us.
Now imagine a semi-truck or a worse a school bus driver taking your kid to school being distracted because they’re talking or texting on their cell phones…a terrifying scenario when you consider the precious cargo they’re carrying or the sheer size and weight of a big truck traveling down the road.
It’s possible a bill banning the practice could be signed into law this year. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), chair of the powerful Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in the U.S. Senate has authored a bill that would pay states that enact bans on texting or talking on a hand-held device while driving.
Many states already have laws in place for hand-held devices and texting while driving. Safety experts say research concludes that talking and texting while driving is unsafe and actually more dangerous than drunk driving, which is why many industry groups are either neutral or support this idea.
This idea has been around for a while – the National Transportation Safety Board recommended in 2004 the same federal ban be enacted after a tour bus driver became so engrossed in a conversation, he didn’t see signs warning that an upcoming overpass was too low for him to pass under. The bus slammed the underside of the bridge, injuring 11 passengers.
Lawmakers in Washington authored a bill this summer to force states to enact bans on texting or emailing during driving or lose 25% of their federal highway funding. However, Rockefeller’s bill is seen to be a more plausible approach. And Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently concluded a distracted driving conference where he announced a similar ban for federal employees driving government vehicles.
This is a pretty serious matter as I’ve seen many accidents around the country resulting from a bus and/or truck driver’s negligence…we know all too well the devastation wrought by a collision with large trucks and the like.