No Texting for U.S. Bus, Truck Drivers

Posted on Jan 26, 2010

Flickr / psiaki

Unlike toy trucks, a real one traveling at 55 mph can take more than 130 yards to come to a stop.

Apparently America’s truck drivers aren’t immune to the siren call of text messaging from time to time, as Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has had to specifically address the driving and texting issue among truckers and bus drivers with a new prohibition on the practice.  —KA

AFP via Google News:

“I’ve directed the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to use its existing authority to prohibit commercial truck and bus drivers from texting while driving, using any handheld cellphone or other device that takes a driver’s attention off the road,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.

“Today, we’re sending a strong message: we don’t merely expect you to share the road responsibly with other travellers—we require you to do so,” he said.

The ban takes effect immediately and affects inter-state truck drivers and commercial bus or van drivers who carry more than eight passengers.

Read more

More Below the Ad

New and Improved Comments

We are launching a major overhaul of our comments section.

In addition to more robust spam filtering and moderation, new features include the ability to rate other comments, sort how they are displayed and respond directly via e-mail or in a thread.

Unfortunately, commenters will lose their existing Truthdig identities. It's a pain, we know, but on the plus side you will now be able to log in with a plethora of options, including Google, Twitter, Facebook and Disqus accounts.

Before launching this system we spent months in discussion with our top commenters. We listened to the feedback and we hope you like what we've come up with.

Please direct any problems or concerns to us via our contact page.