In March 2010, a truck accident in Munfordville, Kentucky, took the lives of 11 people and was one of the most tragic wrecks the state has seen in decades. The crash occurred just before dawn on I-65 in Hart County and killed a Mennonite family and a few friends as well as the truck driver.

The victims had been traveling in a 15-person van on the way to a wedding, and many had not been wearing seatbelts, the National Transportation Safety Board reported this week. Even more alarming, though, is that NTSB officials said that the driver had made or received four cell phone calls in the twenty minutes before the crash.

The board determined that the last call, which was connected for less than a second at the exact moment of the crash, had distracted the driver enough to cause him to swerve the truck to across a 60-foot median and strike the passenger van traveling in the opposite direction.

The NTSB's investigation found that the driver had made or received 69 cell phone calls and text messages while driving within the 24 hours before the crash, and that in the 16 minutes following the crash, the driver's cell phone received six callbacks.

These's findings have prompted the NTSB to recommend at a hearing this week that drivers of commercial vehicles be forbidden from using cell phones, except in emergencies, while behind the wheel. The chairwoman of the board stressed that drivers must understand the dangers of using a cell phone or texting while driving.

"Changing behavior can start right now, for big-rig drivers and also for the rest of us," the chairwoman said. "When you are at the wheel, driving safely should be your only focus. You owe it to yourself and all the people on the road you put at risk, as we so tragically saw at Munfordville."

Please check back next week for more on this important issue.

Source: The Louisville Courier-Journal, "NTSB says trucker in 11-fatality accident was on cellphone, urges ban on devices for commercial drivers," James R. Carroll, Sept. 13, 2011.