Personal Injury Lawyers > Personal Injury Blog > Bus Accidents > Truck and Bus Drivers Banned from Texting While Driving

Personal Injury Blog

Truck and Bus Drivers Banned from Texting While Driving

The US Department of Transportation has announced a ban on text messaging while driving for all commercial bus and truck drivers. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the ban this week, saying that the administration wants truck and bus drivers as well as the motorists who share the highways with them, to be safe. Under the new rule, commercial truck and bus drivers caught text messaging while driving, could face civil and criminal penalties that touch up to $2,750.

The ban which goes into effect immediately, is the most recent in a series of steps taken by the Department of Transportation to combat distracted driving. Many of these steps have been set in motion since the first Distracted Driving Summit was held in September-October 2009.

Since that summit, President Obama has signed an executive order banning federal employees from text messaging or using cell phones while driving government-issued vehicles. The Department of Transportation has also since then set up a website dedicated solely to combating distracted driving. The website called distraction.gov went live in January, and contains data and statistics related to distracted driving accidents across the country.

That was followed by the establishment of a new support group for survivors of distracted driving accident victims.  The organization is called FocusDriven, and aims to give a voice to the family members of those killed in distracted driving accidents. This new ban on text messaging while driving for commercial vehicle drivers is one more step designed to cut down the risks from distractions to truckers as well as motorists.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief Anne Ferro says that these new regulations will help “prevent unsafe activities” by truck and bus drivers. Surveys conducted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration have shown that truck drivers who text message while driving, take their eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds at a time. Truck drivers who send and receive text messages while driving are 20 times more likely to be involved in an accident than drivers who are not distracted while driving. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration says that it is working on more regulations to combat the use of cell phones and other electronic communication devices while driving. These measures will be announced over the next few months.

California truck accident lawyers have been very encouraged over the past few months at several measures that aim to enhance safety for both truck drivers as well as motorists. Last year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced that it would revise the 11-hour Hours of Service rules for truck drivers. The agency has been under pressure from highway safety groups, and had agreed to revise the rules within a few months. That step had been welcomed by California truck accident attorneys who have been strong supporters of lowering the HOS rules back to the earlier 10-hour rule.  Now with the new ban on texting while driving, truck accident fatality rates are likely to decline further.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of bus accidents and truck accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

---

One response to “Truck and Bus Drivers Banned from Texting While Driving”

1. Krystal Kid writes:
   

   80% percent of all rear end collisions (The most frequent vehicle accident) are caused by driver inattention, following too closely, external distraction (talking on cell phones, shaving, applying makeup, fiddling with the radio or CD player, texting, etc.) and poor judgment.

   @ January 28th, 2010 at 05:55