LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB/AP) -- States should ban drivers from using cell phones and other portable electronic devices except in emergencies -- that was the recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday.
That ban would apply to hands-free phones as well as hand-held ones. It goes well beyond existing laws in any state.
The recommendation came in connection with a Missouri pileup that killed two people and injured 38 in August of last year. The board says the first collision in that crash came about after a 19-year-old pickup driver sent or received 11 texts in as many minutes right before the crash.
The pickup ran into the rear of a tractor truck that had slowed down because of highway construction. A school bus, in turn, struck the pickup and another school bus struck the first one. The driver of the pickup and one of the students aboard one of the school buses died.
Speaking of the 19-year-old pickup driver, NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman said, "Driving was not his only priority. No call, no text, no update is worth a human life."
The NTSB cannot impose restrictions, but its recommendations often influence federal regulators and congressional and state lawmakers.
Investigators say they are seeing more examples of distracted drivers across every form of transportation. About two our of every ten American drivers -- half of those ages 21-24 -- say they have texted or sent e-mails while driving. That's according to a survey of over 6,000 drivers by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The survey also found that many drivers don't think it's dangerous when they text, only when other drivers do.
A March 26, 2010, crash on Interstate 65 in Kentucky killed an Alabama truck driver and 10 members of a Kentucky Mennonite community riding in a van headed to a wedding.
Investigators say the driver used his mobile phone both for calls and text messages 69 times in the 24 hours before the accident. In the minutes before the crash, the NTSB says the driver made four calls. The final call was being made as the wreck happened.
A Kentucky State Police investigation had already concluded that distraction and cell phone use were factors in the wreck. Driver Kenneth Laymon's body tested negative for drug or alcohol use.
The NTSB report on that crash was released in October of this year. It recommended that truckers and bus drivers be barred from using a cell phone while operating a vehicle.
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