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Jan. 26, 2010

Beginning today, drivers of commercial trucks and public buses will be prohibited from texting under a new U.S. federal law that U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has issued.

"We want drivers of big trucks and buses and those who share the roads with them to be safe," LaHood said in a statement. "This is an important safety step, and we will be taking more to eliminate the threat of distracted driving."

Cracking down on distracted drivers has been a strong focus of LaHood's since he took office in September 2009.

LaHood said President Obama signed an executive order in October banning all federal workers from texting while driving on government business, driving government vehicles or using any government equipment.

The Obama administration also will push to disqualify school bus drivers who are convicted of texting while driving from keeping their commercial driver's licenses.

"Driving while distracted should just feel wrong just as driving without a seat belt or driving while intoxicated," LaHood said at the end of a two-day conference on the problem. "We're not going to break everyone of their bad habits but we are certainly going to raise awareness and greatly sharpen the consequences."

The conference attracted families of victims of accidents caused by distracted driving, who urged the government to take a strong stance against cell phone use in vehicles, whether it includes a handsfree device or not.

Researchers, safety groups, automakers and lawmakers all gathered to discuss the perils of distracted driving, hearing sobering data from the government that underscored the safety threat as more motorists stay connected with cell phones and all types of mobile devices.

The Transportation Department reported that almost 6,000 people were killed and another 515,000 were injured in 2008 in crashes directly connected to driver distraction, often involving mobile devices or cell phones. Driver distraction was involved in 16 percent of all fatal crashes last year and was more prevalent among young drivers.

The prohibition is effective immediately. Truck and bus drivers who text while driving commercial vehicles may be subject to civil or criminal penalties of up to $2,750, the Department of Transportation said in a news release.

The release didn't offer any specifics on how the prohibition will be enforced, however.

In September, LaHood convened a two-day summit on the issue in Washington. The Department of Transportation recently launched the Web site distraction.gov to raise awareness of the dangers of distracted driving.

Two weeks ago, LaHood and National Safety Council President Janet Froetscher announced the creation of the advocacy group FocusDriven, a nonprofit that supports the families of distracted driving victims, modeled after Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, drivers take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds out of every six seconds while texting. FMCSA research shows drivers who text are more than 20 times more likely to get in an accident than nondistracted drivers.

No less than nineteen states, plus the District of Columbia and Guam, have passed state laws prohibiting texting while driving. Six states, plus the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands, already ban the use of handheld devices while driving.

American Bus Association President Peter Pantuso says his organization fully supports the new law and that most of his member companies already had policies prohibiting drivers from texting and using cell phones.

He added that technologies that can help prevent a mobile device from receiving e-mails or phone calls while the vehicle is in motion could also help address the problem.

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Source: The U.S. Secretary of Transportation.