Ban recommended on trucker cell use and texting

September 13, 2011 - 7:25 PM
Kentucky Fatal Crash


LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — No cellphones while driving, period. That's the rule the National Transportation Safety Board wants for the nation's more than 2.8 million truckers and bus drivers.







The NTSB proposed in 2004 that the department prohibit commercial bus drivers from using cell phones in non-emergency situations while driving, but it wasn't until last December that the department proposed banning hand-held cell phone use for bus and truck drivers while operating a vehicle. A final rule is expected this fall.

"Texting or talking on the phone while driving can turn deadly in a matter of seconds, particularly when a big rig or a bus is involved," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement Tuesday. "There is no call or text message that is worth risking lives."

The DOT rule wouldn't apply to hands-free cell phone use even though some studies show it is as dangerous a distraction for drivers as talking on a hand-held phone. Drivers have a tendency to look at the phone instead of the road, the studies show. They also may be looking at traffic, but not registering what's happening because they are concentrating on their conversation.

The American Trucking Association, an industry lobbying group, supports a ban on hand-held phones and texting but not hands-free devices, said Boyd Stephenson, safety and security manager for the Arlington, Va.-based organization. Stephenson said there's no science backing up the idea that hands-free devices are a distraction like hand-held devices.


Lynn Murphy, a 66-year-old St. Louis-based truck driver, agrees that drivers shouldn't use their phones while behind the wheel, but said they often call to get directions or instructions, both important to delivering a load on time and under high stress.

"They're attacking the wrong people," Murphy said as he took a break at a Shepherdsville, Ky., truck stop on Tuesday.

Jonathan Adkins, a spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association in Washington, D.C., said there's not enough science behind the proposed ban to push it through 50 state legislatures. He said employers should deal with the issue for now.


The proposed ban would cover commercial driver's license holders while they operate vehicles such as tractor-trailers, buses or tanker trucks. The recommendation covers highway commercial vehicles, not public transportation such as subways and trains.

Before its recommendation, the NTSB accepted its investigators' conclusion that trucker Kenneth Laymon caused a wreck March 26, 2010, on Interstate 65 near Munfordville, Ky. It said Laymon was distracted by his phone, though driver fatigue and the failure of cable barriers along the median also contributed to the crash.

Laymon's truck crossed the median, drove into the oncoming lanes and smashed head-on into a van carrying 12 people — a Mennonite family and friends — to a wedding in Iowa. Two young children in safety seats were the only survivors.

Laymon, 45, of Jasper, Ala., had just made a one-second call at the time of the early morning crash, and had been talking and texting in the hours leading up to it, the board said. Investigator David Rayburn said Laymon panicked and hit the brakes but didn't try to steer his tractor-trailer out of the median.



She could not immediately be reached for comment after the hearing.

Federal authorities said Laymon had been off the road for two of the previous three days while his truck underwent repairs, but had only slept about four hours the night before the wreck, which happened roughly 13 hours and 437 miles after he left. Autopsy tests on Laymon came back negative for alcohol or drug use.







Associated Press Writer Joan Lowy in Washington contributed to this report.

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