The Department of Transportation is going to ban truck and bus drivers from texting on handheld devices while driving.


The ban will be announced Tuesday morning by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief Anne Ferro, according to sources who are familiar with the details but could not speak on the record.

The move has been anticipated since last October, when LaHood said the department is committed to reducing distracted driving. FMCSA is working on a proposed rule on the subject, but today's announcement comes in the form of a regulatory guidance that shortcuts the laborious and time-consuming rulemaking process.

LaHood has described distracted driving as a national epidemic. A report last year by the Pew Research Center said that a quarter of U.S. 16- and 17-year-olds who have cell phones text while driving, and almost half of Americans between ages 12 and 17 have been in cars where the driver was texting.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly 6,000 people died in 2008 in crashes involving a distracted driver. Not all of these incidents necessarily involved a cell phone - there are many other kinds of distractions - but NHTSA said that on any given day more than 800,000 drivers are using a hand-held cell phone.

The trucking industry generally applauds the effort to restrain reckless driver behavior. Many fleets already restrict cell phone use by drivers in the cab. The American Trucking Associations has told Congress and DOT that it supports banning the use of hand-held electronic devices, including texting, while a vehicle is in motion. Owner-operator Dale Wiederholt, a member of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said, "All drivers need to put safety first and fully focus on operating their vehicles."

Look for more details on Truckinginfo.com after the official announcement.