Proposed Ban On Texting For TruckersProposed Ban On Texting For Truckers

In January, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood issued a temporary texting ban for truckers. Now there is a proposal to make the ban permanent. What shocks me is that this is only happening now, in 2010. Texting has been a deadly distraction for years for drivers. Why has it taken the federal government so long to implement this?Texting while driving is one of the most irresponsible acts you can do, short of driving drunk or high. Unlike fiddling with the radio, eating or applying makeup, texting can take your eyes off the road for five to ten seconds as you read the screen or fumble on the thumb keyboard, or worse, tap it out on a virtual keyboard. Glancing back and forth quickly like you can while eating would cause you to lose your place too much. I am not saying grabbing a chicken wrap while cruising is good, I am just trying to show how much worse texting is. It isn't even close to the same thing.

At 60 miles per hour, you'll cover 440 feet, or nearly a football field and a half. At those speeds, you can be completely unaware of your surroundings at the end of the that five seconds. It blows my mind that truckers have been legally texting in many areas while moving an 80,000 pound object down the road at 88 feet per second.

At least they are taking action now to rectify this oversight. Until it goes into effect, be wary of getting too near a truck on the road. The driver may be more interested in updating his Twitter status than what lane he is in.