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Community Corner

NTSB: Ban Cell Phone Use While Driving

The dreaded "b" word cropped up in response to thousands of deaths on the nation's roadways.

 

After it announced on Monday that a fatal multivehicle crash in 2010 might have been related to a driver texting, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) proposed banning the use of all electronic devices while driving. 

The crash in question happened in Gray Summit (southwest of St. Louis) and affected several vehicles and more than 40 people. It included two fatalities and 38 injuries, NTSB said in a press release.

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“The NTSB's investigation revealed that the pickup driver sent and received 11 text messages in the 11 minutes preceding the accident,” the NTSB said in a press release. “The last text was received moments before the pickup struck the truck-tractor.”

Specifically, the new safety recommendations call for all 50 states and the District of Columbia to ban the “nonemergency use of portable electronic devices (other than those designed to support the driving task) for all drivers.”

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Additionally, the recommendation also asks states to use the NHTSA model of high-visibility enforcement to support and enforce the bans, as well as the implementation of targeted communication campaigns to tell drivers about the new law and heightened enforcement.

In November, Gov. Tom Corbett  signed legislation that bans on Pennsylvania roads.

Reasonable rules?

“According to NHTSA, more than 3,000 people lost their lives last year in distraction-related accidents", said Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman in a press release. "It is time for all of us to stand up for safety by turning off electronic devices when driving."

While the Gray Summit accident is the most recently investigated one involving texting and driving, the first case involving distraction from a wireless electronic device was investigated in 2002.

In that case, a new driver was having a conversation on her cell phone as she was driving through Largo, MD. She became distracted and flipped the car after crossing the median. Five people died as a result of the accident. 

The NTSB outlined several other events between 2004 and 2010 in which cell phones, laptops and other electronic devices distracted drivers and other vehicle operators, leading to unnecessary accidents.

There are 5.3 billion mobile phone subscribers in the world, according to the NTSB. That means 77 percent of the world population has a cell phone. And in the United States, the number is much higher, the NTSB said.

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