WASHINGTON — A U.S. advocacy group has filed a petition with the DOT, calling on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to implement a rule to restrict the use of "unsafe electronic devices" by commercial truck drivers, regardless of whether they’re needed for the job.

Henry Jasny, the general counsel of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, told reporters that focusing on truck drivers was the most direct and fast approach to address the safety issue since the FMCSA directly controls the regulations affecting of commercial driver behavior. When it comes to banning device use by passenger vehicle drivers, the issue is in the hands of the states or Congress, Jasny said. 

The petition calls for regulators to evaluate all wireless electronic devices used for telecommunications, telematics, entertainment and driver assistance (regardless of whether they are mobile or installed into the vehicle electronics platform) that can be used by drivers while operating a truck.

"Driver distraction is a serious and growing safety problem," said "If safety is indeed our nation’s number one transportation priority, now is the time for FMCSA to act to stem the rising tide of distracted driving crashes, deaths and injuries." 

The telematics ban targets truckers because going
through FMCSA was the easiest way to get a rule
passed, says the lobby group pressing for it.

Gillan, Advocates vice president, says her group is against the use of electronic devices — both handheld and hands free — while driving for talking, texting and other purposes.

The petition asks the FMCSA to determine which devices are unsafe.

During the conference call, the group, which is funded by the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, referred to several studies that point to the dangers of cell phone use and distracted driving, including the Virginia Tech study, which found that 58.8 percent of the critical events in large truck fatal crashes resulted from the action of another vehicle, while 20.9 percent resulted from the action of the truck driver. 

According to the Associated Press, the American Trucking Associations has a neutral stance on a ban on cell phone use by truck drivers until the language of a rule is revealed. ATA’s safety agenda explains that some forms of electronic communication devices hinder driver performance by taking the driver’s eyes off the road. 

Like most other special interest groups, Advocates cites the oft-repeated stat that nearly 5,000 people are killed and 100,000 injured each year in crashes involving large trucks, without acknowledging that the vast majority are the fault of passenger car drivers or are not attributed to truck driver error, specifically.

When that was brought up reporters, Jerry Donaldson, senior research director for Advocates, responded by saying that studies that support that argument weren’t legitimate.

Of course not.

— with files from Truckinginfo.com