DOT to Publish Regulation to Ban Texting by Truckers in Near Future, LaHood Says
This story appears in the Dec. 21 & 28 print edition of Transport Topics.
WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said work on a regulation that would ban texting by commercial drivers will be finished in the near future.
“We feel a great sense of urgency about this,” LaHood said Dec. 7. “We’ve met with some of the industry people about it, but I can’t really give you a time — sooner rather than later is probably the best answer.
“We just feel that this is something we really need to do. . . . It is a big issue, and it’s not just texting while driving in cars,” LaHood said. “It has to do with all of these activities that take place in trucks and [with] bus drivers and train drivers.”
According to a recent Department of Transportation report on the status of continuing rulemakings, a texting ban is slated to be published in late February.
During the fall, LaHood convened a distracted driving summit, where he announced that he was ordering the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to issue a rule banning texting by truck and bus drivers and limiting the use of cell phones and other communication devices by all drivers.
Anne Ferro, recently confirmed as the FMCSA administrator, said her agency was “following through posthaste” on that request.
LaHood said the department has been on “a kick the last couple of months on distracted driving, which we think is an epidemic, especially among young people. . . . I’m not coordinated enough to text and drive, but I am coordinated to talk on the phone and drive. We all abuse the privilege, and it is not safe.”
The secretary faced questions from an FMCSA advisory panel over how such bans might be enforced.
“I know enforcement is going to be very, very difficult . . . but that’s what people said about seat-belt laws and .08 [blood alcohol level],” he said. “Enforcement is very hard, but I’m not going to give up on this.”
Lt. Col. Scott Hernandez of the Colorado State Patrol told Transport Topics that he doubted law enforcement agencies could consistently enforce texting bans, but they could use other methods to convince drivers to comply.
“On rural roads, you’re probably not going to have a lot of enforcement because you’re not going to be able to get up alongside them,” he said. “But on a lot of the municipal roadways and the interstates, they’ll use strategies [to observe]. I think what you’ll see is stricter other enforcement.”
For example, Hernandez said, if an officer observes a truck weaving across lanes and notices a cell phone out in the cab, he may issue a citation rather than just a warning.
“You won’t see a whole lot of citations specific to texting,” he said, but rather more of other types of citations.
