Distracted-driving crashes prompt NTSB push for driver cell phone ban
When the National Transportation Safety Board called for a complete ban on cell phones and handheld devices for commercial truck drivers earlier this year, the agency cited the horrific May 2010 truck crash that left 11 people dead on a Munfordville, Kentucky, highway. Now the NTSB is endorsing a much wider ban that would prohibit calling and texting behind the wheel for all drivers in all 50 states and across all modes of transportation.
The debate over whether to raise the weight limits for commercial trucks on federal interstate highways is heating up after Maine and Vermont passed legislation last week allowing trucks exceeding the 40-ton limit on its interstates for the next 20 years.
Throughout the Midwest, farmers are harvesting their final crops of the season, which means more large farm trucks laden with grain are out on the roads, hauling their produce to suppliers. Here in the Deep South, the story is much the same; big rigs carrying tons of cotton and other harvests to market share the roads with other motorists.
