Although Texas does not have any state-wide texting and driving laws banning the practice, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has a federal ban on this dangerous act for truck drivers.
Drivers who take their eyes off the road greatly increase risk of an accident. Knowing this, the FMCSA published new rules in October 2010 banning all truck drivers from texting while driving their commercial motor vehicles, regardless of the state within which they are traveling.
The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that drivers take their eyes off the road for approximately 4.6 seconds when they engage in texting while driving. In the time a driver’s eyes are off the road, a truck traveling at 55 miles per hour would travel the distance of a football field, increasing the probability of being involved in a hazardous event 23.2 times.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), taking these and other reports into account, banned texting while the user is driving a commercial motor vehicle. In the full text of “Limiting the Use of Wireless Communication Devices” (49 CFR Parts 383, 384, 390, 391, and 392), the term “texting” is further d
efined as several actions.
Defining the Texting and Driving Laws
“Texting” used in the federal law, is defined, “Manually entering alphanumeric text into, or reading text from, an electronic device.” This definition goes beyond just SMS text messages and also includes e-mails, messages sent through an instant messaging program such as MSN Messenger or Skype, typing in a URL for a website, or engaging in any other electronic text input or retrieval for future communication.
“Electronic device” in the federal law mainly refers to cell phones, although the official definition in the full legal text indicates the term applies to:
• cell phones;
• personal digital assistants (PDAs);
• pagers/beepers;
• computers or laptops; and
• any other device used to input, write, send, receive, or read text.
The texting and driving law does not forbid using devices like fleet management systems, dispatching units, and smartphones as long as their use is not for “texting” as defined above.
The texting and driving ban is to be enforced whenever a truck driver is actively driving the commercial motor vehicle. It also extends to use of a phone to place calls – drivers must use a hands-free headset system to make or answer calls. A driver is not allowed to manipulate a phone while his or her vehicle is in operation.
Consequences of Cell Phone Use by Truckers
Drivers guilty of illegal cell phone use while operating a commercial motor vehicle can face civil penalties and those with multiple offenses may face driver disqualification. Individual drivers may face fines up to $2,750 in civil penalties and motor carriers who allow drivers to use phones without a hands-free device or text while driving may be assessed fines of up to $11,000.
The biggest consequence of cell phone use by truckers is the harm that they pose to nearby vehicles and pedestrians. Commercial trucks weigh several tons more than your average passenger vehicle, and a pedestrian is no match for thousands of pounds of metal speeding along the road.
If a semi truck driver takes his or her attention off the road to reach for a phone or text, those spare seconds could send the truck into the path of another vehicle or into a collision with a pedestrian.
Proving a truck driver was texting and driving or engaged in hands-on use of a cell phone can be difficult without solid evidence. If you or a loved one has been injured in Dallas because of a negligent truck driver that you believe was texting, contact a truck accident attorney for legal assistance preparing your claim.
