Go For the Goal
EDITOR’S JOURNAL
RANDY GRIDER
VOLUME 36
ISSUE 1
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Hanging it up
Time to push
the universal
end button on
distracted driving
I
n late November, the Federal
Motor Carrier Safety Administration formally banned commercial
drivers from using handheld cell
phones and other communication
devices while driving. It went into
effect Jan. 1. The U.S. Department of
Transportation had already banned
truckers from texting while driving.
The new regs have spawned a
great deal of
response from
NFORTUNATELY
truckers —
TRUCKERS HAVE mainly conA TARGET ON cerning how
they were
THEIR BACKS being unfairly
singled out
IN ANY
by regulators.
They point to
ACCIDENT NO
drivers of fourwheelers who
MATTER WHO
in sheer numIS AT FAULT
bers pose the
biggest public
threat with distracted driving, especially cell phone use.
Truckers regularly report witnessing drivers who are texting and
swerving and dialing the phone
and drifting across the center line
or off the road. It has gotten to the
point that it’s almost impossible to
drive one mile without seeing someone using their cell phone in some
unsafe fashion.
The truth is no one should
be texting while driving. It is
extremely dangerous. And it’s pretty
hard to argue that having both eyes
U
,
.
4 TRUCKERS NEWS JANUARY 2012
Randy Grider is editor
of Truckers News.
Write him at rgrider@
randallreilly.com.
on the road and both hands on the
wheel is not the safest way to drive.
This tried-and-true method harkens all the way back to high school
driver’s education for many of us.
Unfortunately many people —
especially commuters and young
drivers — have forgotten that highway travel demands a person’s full
attention. Distractions while driving
sometimes leads to deadly results.
Many states have laws concerning cell phone use while driving.
So far there is no federal law that
makes cell phone use while driving
a violation. And that needs to come
from Congress because the FMCSA
has no authority to regulate the
general driving public.
Perhaps there should be a
tougher uniform law that severely
punishes any person who injures
or kills someone while purposely
allowing themselves to be distracted
by a cell phone, radio or whatever
while behind the wheel of a vehicle.
Unfortunately, truckers have a
target on their backs in any accident no matter who is at fault. The
mainstream press — whether it’s
intentional or not — has historically branded truckers as the aggressor in truck-related crashes.
Truckers are right that handheld
cell phone use while driving is not
a trucking problem. It’s a cultural
problem that increasingly impacts all
motorists. We would be much better off if everyone would just hang up
and drive.
EDITORIAL
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