Texting forbidden for drivers of trucks, buses

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.
— Truckers, bus drivers and other commercial drivers are prohibited
from texting while behind the wheel under a new federal rule announced
Tuesday by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.

Commercial operators who text while driving may be subject to civil or criminal penalties of as much as $2,750, LaHood said. The rule went into effect immediately, though it’s unclear how it will be enforced.

“It’s the most difficult part, the enforcement,”
LaHood acknowledged in a news briefing Tuesday morning. Because many
truckers sit some four feet above eye level, it’s hard for officers to
see whether they are texting.

“We’re at the starting gate on this,” LaHood said,
adding that while critics once thought it wouldn’t be possible to curb
drunken driving or get people to use seat belts, “now 90 percent of the
people use seat belts.”

The new rule is part of a distracted driving safety
initiative the Obama administration has been pursuing, with LaHood
convening a two-day summit on the issue in September and creating an
advocacy group, FocusDriven, this month. FocusDriven is a nonprofit
that supports the families of victims of distracted driving.

Some trucking companies said they already forbid
texting while driving, as well as talking on hand-held cell phones.
Both practices are illegal in California.

“I’m in favor of any regulation that encourages anyone to drive a vehicle undistracted,” said Alan Osofsky of San Leandro, Calif.-based Rogers Trucking, a 40-year-old business with 80 drivers.

“When anyone is behind the wheel, they need to pay
attention to driving, and driving only. I’m sure they will come up with
laws for individual drivers, too, but they always target truckers first
because of our high visibility,” Osofsky said.

“Drivers are already told as part of their orientation as Con-way employees and during weekly safety meetings that texting while driving is prohibited,” said Gary Frantz, a spokesman for Con-way Inc., a Michigan company.

Drivers who text are more than 20 times more likely
to get in an accident than undistracted drivers, according to research
by 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 when texting, according to the agency’s research.

—

(c) 2010, Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.).

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