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Feds Looking to Permanently Ban Truck & Bus Driver Texting

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The Department of Transportation announced yesterday its intentions to indefinitely expand a temporary January ban prohibiting interstate truck and bus drivers from text messaging behind the wheel. 16% of crash fatalities--that's 5,870 dead--in 2008 were blamed on distracted driving. The same year, 500,000 injuries were blamed on it, too. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, "20 states [California included!], the District of Columbia and Guam now ban text messaging for all drivers. 15 states, D.C., and Guam have primary enforcement. In the other four, texting bans for all drivers are secondarily enforced."

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