Cell Phone Ban Will Apply to Commercial Drivers: Will Everyone Else Follow?

The US Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has marked Jan. 3, 2012 as the date that a new hand-held cell phone ban would take effect.

While the ban affects drivers of commercial trucks, vans or other vehicles requiring a CDL, motorists in the general driving population shouldn't get too comfortable.  The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is urging that the same rules apply to you as well.

The FMCSA ban would not allow drivers to use a hand-held cell phone or mobile device unless they are using it to communicate with law enforcement.

While the ban applies to cell phones as well as push-to-talk phones (like Nextel devices), it would not apply to CB radios. It also includes phones that would require pressing more than a single button to answer or place a call. Mounting phones may circumvent that rule.

Reaction to the NTSB's push to add drivers with regular licenses has been for the most part negative by the driving public, and the allowance for the use of a GPS in a car would seem to be contrary to the rule. Comments on an article posted on The Hill ranged from those who felt the rule was 'common sense' to those who saw it as fascism.