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(EMAILWIRE.COM, January 12, 2012 ) LegalView, a leading online legal resource, supports a National Transportation and Safety Board proposed ban on cell phone use and other portable electronic devices while driving as it could save thousands of lives.
After wrapping up its investigation into a deadly multi-vehicle pileup that occurred in Missouri last summer, the NTSB is appealing to states to ban all non-emergency cell phone and other portable electronic devices while driving.
If adopted, states would ban drivers from talking and texting on their cell phones and other electronic devices. Passengers would not be affected.
The agency found that the multi-car pileup in question on August 5, 2010, was caused by a 19-year-old male driver who either sent or received 11 text messages in the 11 minutes before the crash- that's one text message per minute. The driver was driving a GMC Sierra pickup and was traveling 55 miles per hour when it slammed into a Volvo truck tracker that had slowed to a stop. Then, the Volvo truck driver hit a school bus which hit another school bus.
In all, two people were killed and thirty-eight were injured.
According to the NTSB, distracted driving which includes texting while driving is a leading cause of auto accidents.
NTSB Chairperson, Deborah Hersman, says that too many people are distracted while driving and her agency is seeing it everywhere - from airplane pilots, railroad operators and in every type of vehicle on the road ways.
The recommendation is the strongest one yet, says Hersman, and may be the most unpopular as many people may not want to stop texting and driving. However, as Hersman points out, her agency does not always recommend the most popular ideas, but they are what is right. She said in a press conference that this ban would save thousands of lives.
LegalView supports such a ban and its life saving initiatives.
For ten years, the NTSB has been trying to limit cell phone use. This recommendation was one of 13 safety recommendations put out by the agency as a result of this crash.
Bill Stouffer, Missouri state senator and chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, says that Missouri already has a law in place banning those under 21 years from texting while driving, but that didn't stop the 19-year-old pickup driving from sending and receiving texts before the Gray Summit accident.
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