Just as dead

It’s a pity that it takes the heavy hand of government to ban practices that common sense would say are stupid, if not deadly. Such is the case with text messaging while driving, which the U.S. Dept. of Transportation recently outlawed for commercial drivers.

Studies show that texting and related behaviors – talking on a cell phone or reaching for an electronic device – increase crash risk at a much higher rate for truckers than for four-wheelers. Presumably trucks’ much greater stopping distance is the reason.

Looking at the broader picture of accidents and fatalities, the biggest group of motorized killers isn’t truckers. Of the 34,017 motor vehicle fatalities in 2008, 4,229 involved large trucks. Most of the truck-related accidents were not the fault of the truck driver.

It’s hard to determine the true number of fatal accidents due to communicating on electronic devices. But studies have proven just how dangerous is texting, the most distracting of these practices. Drivers who send and receive text messages take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds out of every 6 seconds while texting.

Texting is dangerous enough that President Obama signed an executive order directing federal employees not to engage in text messaging while driving government-owned vehicles.

No state needs to offer unmerited freedoms to a certain class of drivers.