NTSB: Ban truckers’ cellphones

The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended that all commercial drivers be banned from talking on cellphones, even hands-free, when driving.

The recommendation follows the recently released findings of NTSB investigators that a March 2010 accident on Interstate 65 near Munfordville, Ky., that killed 11 people was caused by a truck driver who was “distracted by the use of his cellular telephone.”

NTSB discovered that the driver made 69 calls or texts while driving in the 24 hours before to the crash, ABC News reports. In the minutes before the accident, he made three calls, and he was on the phone when the accident occurred.

"This is the most comprehensive recommendation we've made," NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman told The Associated Press.

According to the AP:

The NTSB has previously recommended prohibiting bus drivers from talking on the phone and texting while driving. The U.S. Department of Transportation also has a rule in place barring the use of hand-held phones by commercial truck drivers and similar regulations are in place for pilots, train engineers and boat operators.

Since the NTSB cannot enforce the ban itself, it’s asked legislators in all 50 states to outlaw trucker cellphone use. Some private companies already do.

ABC News reports:

No states have bans in place for all cellphone use in cars, based on data posted on the GHSA [Governors Highway Safety Association] web site. But 34 states ban text messaging for all drivers and nine states ban hand-held cellphone use. Kentucky, where the accident occurred, bans text messaging but not the use of hand-held cellphones.

The American Trucking Association supports a legal ban on hand-held phones and texting, but not hands-free devices, Boyd Stephenson, safety and security manager for the Arlington, Va.-based organization, told the AP. He said there's no science backing up the idea that hands-free devices are the same kind of distraction hand-held cellphones are.

Truckers at a Salisbury, N.C., truck stop told North Carolina’s WBTV that they did not support banning hands-free phones. "Sometimes the only way I have to communicate is through the cellphone," trucker John Poe, taking a break at a truck stop off Interstate 85 Wednesday morning, said. "I think that's a terrible idea."