By Adam Ghassemi
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Rush hour in Music City can be the perfect storm for traffic with a central location where three major interstates all become one. It only takes a few minutes until you're sharing the road with a semi.
"They don't stop on a dime," said trucker Mark Green who uses a hands free headset and only checks texts when he stops. "If it's anything important when I stop and all to get fuel or whatever then I check any messages, emails or whatever."
Even with some drivers and companies taking precautions, like not allowing cell phones to be turned on while in their cab, the NTSB is worried cell phones in big rigs will only lead to more deaths.
On Tuesday, a NTSB chairman said large tractor trailers can be lethal when drivers are distracted behind the wheel of 40 tons going highway speeds.
A March 2010 crash in Munfordville, Kentucky killed 45-year-old Kenneth Laymon of Jasper, Alabama, and ten people in a passenger van after the truck crossed the median, going into oncoming traffic. Many of the victims were part of a Mennonite family on their way to a wedding in Iowa. Federal investigators said Laymon was on his cell phone seconds before the crash.
"It's something that shouldn't have happened in the first place, you know, he shouldn't have been distracted talking on the cell phone," one trucker said Tuesday.
Trucker Gary Ground said he's against texting while driving, but banning cell phones completely means drivers could be left on the open road completely alone.
"If you're in the truck ten hours a day all by yourself you have to talk to somebody otherwise you'd go nuts," Ground said.
If the NTSB gets it way, seeing truck drivers talking on cell phones while behind the wheel may become a thing of the past.
"Everybody I pass is somebody's family and they love them you know, but you've got to be safe out there," Green said.
The NTSB is also calling for tougher median barriers. They said in the Kentucky crash last year Laymon's semi plowed through cable barriers meant to stop cars because it was too much weight, traveling too quickly.
The recommendations will go to the Federal Highway Administration, all 50 states and others to consider.
It's already illegal to text while driving in the state of Tennessee.
NTSB: http://www.ntsb.gov/news/2011/110913.html
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