Though the writer played it as an example of distracted driving, could it be an argument for more flexibility in the hours of service? Whatever the case, given today’s news that a nationwide texting-while-driving ban is in the offing, I guess it couldn’t be helped that Joseph Rose of the Oregonian newspaper wrote on the Hard Drive blog of 45-year-old Los Angeles-based trucker Andrew Quintero’s accident on I-5. Quintero’s truck and trailer crossed the median and came to rest on its side on the opposite shoulder, after Quintero choked on his chicken lunch and passed out: “Holding a cell phone and texting while driving in Oregon: Illegal,” Rose wrote. “Chomping away on chicken while steering a big rig along Interstate 5: You can still do that. But as a commercial truck driver discovered Wednesday near Albany, eating and driving can be just as dangerous.”
Quintero walked away uninjured, thankfully.
For some Channel 19-style background on the DWT (driving while texting, of course) ban, I last wrote about DWT, with links to past stories, here.
