Last week, we reported how the National Transportation Safety Board recently concluded that a truck accident in Kentucky in 2010 that killed 11 people was caused by a negligent truck driver who was distracted by his cell phone. In fact, the driver had made or received four cell phone calls in the twenty minutes before the crash, one just moments before the crash.

After making these findings, the NTSB went on to recommend that all commercial vehicle drivers in the country, all 3.7 million of them, should be banned from using a cell phone while behind the wheel of a big rig, except for in the case of an emergency, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported last week.

Although the NTSB's recommendation was quite controversial, the board members stood behind it, with the chairwoman explaining that the federal agency was not in place to "be popular."

Specifically, the NTSB pressed the individual states and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to adopt the cell phone ban, as it does not have the authority to enact law.

Additionally, the board urged Kentucky and other states to adopt laws requiring passengers in 15-passanger vans, like the one involved in the 2010 fatal accident, to wear seatbelts. In the 2010 accident, 10 of the 12 passengers in the van were killed and most were not wearing seatbelts, which is currently perfectly legal in the state of Kentucky and many others.

A spokesman with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said a change to the state's seatbelt law has been proposed in the 2012 legislative agenda, but he said the ban on cell phones use by commercial vehicle drivers is better suited for Congress since interstate commerce is involved.

Currently, Kentucky law prohibits texting while driving and cell phone use by drivers under the age of 18. Commercial vehicle drivers are also currently banned from texting while driving by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a rule that was adopted last year.

But many think a ban on texting alone is not enough.

"Texting or talking on the phone while driving can turn deadly in a matter of seconds, particularly when a big rig or a bus is involved," the Secretary of the Department of Transportation said in a statement. "There is no call or text message that is worth risking lives."

We agree.

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.