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Wide cellphone ban urged for drivers

The NTSB also wants states to bar e-mail, texts. A group called it "a game-changer."

Unidentified (intentionally shot that way) driver talks on cell phone while stopped at traffic light at intersection of Haddon and Cuthbert on Collingswood/Westmont border Jun. 26, 2008. (Tom Gralish / Inquirer) EDITORS NOTE: Driver did NOT hang up when light changed and she drove forward. JCELL27 103787 Thu 6/26/2008 Location: Across South Jersey, folks talking on their phones Story: JCELL27 () / Since New Jersey's new cell phone/driving law went into effect in March, police have issued 35,000 tickets at $130 a pop. That's up from a little more than 3,000 for the same time period in 2007. And while folks are shellnig out the bucks for talking & driving, most view the new law sort in the same way they do speed limits. You see what you can get away with. Reporter: Mucha, Peter
Unidentified (intentionally shot that way) driver talks on cell phone while stopped at traffic light at intersection of Haddon and Cuthbert on Collingswood/Westmont border Jun. 26, 2008. (Tom Gralish / Inquirer) EDITORS NOTE: Driver did NOT hang up when light changed and she drove forward. JCELL27 103787 Thu 6/26/2008 Location: Across South Jersey, folks talking on their phones Story: JCELL27 () / Since New Jersey's new cell phone/driving law went into effect in March, police have issued 35,000 tickets at $130 a pop. That's up from a little more than 3,000 for the same time period in 2007. And while folks are shellnig out the bucks for talking & driving, most view the new law sort in the same way they do speed limits. You see what you can get away with. Reporter: Mucha, PeterRead moreINQUIRER
    by By Joan Lowy, Associated Press, Inquirer
    Published 

WASHINGTON - Texting, e-mailing, or chatting on a cellphone while driving is simply too dangerous to be allowed, federal safety investigators declared Tuesday, urging all states to impose total bans except for emergencies.

Inspired by recent deadly crashes - including one in which a teenager sent or received 11 text messages in 11 minutes before an accident - the recommendation would apply even to hands-free devices, a much stricter rule than any state law.

The unanimous recommendation by the five-member National Transportation Safety Board would make an exception for devices deemed to aid driver safety, such as GPS systems.

A group representing state highway safety offices called the recommendation "a game-changer."

"States aren't ready to support a total ban yet, but this may start the discussion," said Jonathan Adkins, spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association.

NTSB chair Deborah Hersman acknowledged that the recommendation would be unpopular with many people. "We're not here to win a popularity contest," she said. "No e-mail, no text, no update, no call is worth a human life."

While the NTSB does not have the power to impose restrictions, its recommendations carry significant weight with federal regulators and lawmakers. Another recommendation issued Tuesday urges states to aggressively enforce current bans on text messaging and the use of cellphones and other portable electronic devices while driving.

Currently, 35 states and the District of Columbia ban texting while driving, while nine states and D.C. bar handheld cellphone use. Thirty states ban all cellphone use for beginning drivers. But enforcement is generally not a high priority, and no states ban the use of hands-free devices for all drivers. A total cellphone ban would be the hardest to accept for many people.

The immediate impetus for the recommendation of state bans was a deadly highway pileup near Gray Summit, Mo., last year in which a 19-year-old pickup driver sent and received 11 texts in 11 minutes just before the accident.

NTSB investigators said they were seeing increasing texting, cellphone calls, and other distracting behavior by drivers in accidents involving all kinds of transportation. It has become routine to immediately request the preservation of cellphone and texting records when an investigation is begun.

In the last few years, the board has investigated the fatal accident on the Delaware River in Philadelphia in which a tugboat pilot was talking on his cellphone and using a laptop computer, and a Northwest Airlines flight that sped more than 100 miles past its destination because both pilots were working on laptops.