Expert Witness Blog
Trucking expert witnesses may opine on qualifications of truck drivers and federal motor vehicle safety standards. The American Trucking Associations website writes that Texting While Driving is Scientifically Dangerous
All driving distractions carry some risk, but text messaging while driving is the most dangerous because it involves all three basic types of distraction – visual, manual and cognitive, Robert Petrancosta, Vice President for Safety of Con-way Freight said in a June 30 USA Today editorial.
“As the National Safety Council has argued, the human brain cannot multitask,” Petrancosta said. “Sure the human brain can juggle tasks very rapidly, but it can only perform one task at a time. A person who is texting while driving is overloading his brain, requiring divided attention.”
A 2009 study conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute using long-haul truck drivers concluded that when motorists texted while driving, their collision risk was 23 times greater.
The American Trucking Associations (ATA) supports the efforts of the 28 states and the District of Columbia that have banned texting by automobile drivers and will continue to work with affiliated state trucking associations and stakeholder groups to encourage the remaining states to also institute a ban.