Ban On Cell Phone Use By Commercial Drivers Starts Next Week
December 29. 2011
The New Year will bring changes to the ways drivers of commercial vehicles communicate while behind the wheel. According to WVEC 13 News, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has mandated a ban on commercial driver’s use of handheld cell phones that will begin January 3.
The new law will allow truckers to use hands free devices to talk, but even holding a phone behind a moving vehicle will now be enough for law enforcement to stop a commercial driver. Opponents of the ban say they aren’t necessarily declaring the ban a bad thing, they just believe it should be enforced against all drivers, not just truckers.
The ban comes nearly two years after a research team from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) found that truckers who text while driving were 23 times more likely to be involved in an accident than undistracted drivers. Their research showed that compared to other distractions that phones can produce through dialing, holding, and talking the device, texting was by far the most dangerous because of an average of around five seconds the drivers eyes are off the road to preform the task.
The Norfolk auto accident attorneys with Lowell “ The Hammer” Stanley handle cases for accident victims who have been injured because of a commercial driver’s neglect to pay attention to the road. If you have been injured at no fault of your own in an accident with a commercial vehicle, contact us today to discuss your case.
