Surfing and trucking

One more reason to worry about those big trucks rolling along right next to you on the interstate.

They have a computer monitor right next to the steering wheel and often the keyboard in their laps.

Pending legislation would ban the use of texting while driving and...

There's a move to include banning the use of computers while driving by truckers, but the industry is, of course, against it.  They believe banning the use of computers while driving is 'overkill' won't improve safety.  Overkill, interesting choice of words.

One trucker said, "We're supposed to pull over (to use the computer), but nobody does."

One recent study found truckers using a computer while driving were 10 times more likely to crash than truckers who did not.  A driver texting is 23 times more likely to crash.

I don't know about you, but since a spate of bad accidents involving trucks and texting and cell phone answering, I give these guys a very wide berth.  Knowing they all have computers next to the steering wheel and a keyboard in their laps, I'll be staying even farther away.

Comments

[AndyM]

Yeah, now you're just buying into this kind of crap. It takes a lot of time, and therefore money to have to pull over and read some 2 sentence message. Most of the time these truckers are on highways and freeways. And guess what? Freeways and highways are straight, and four seconds not looking at the road (on AVERAGE, notice that word) isn't a significant risk. And you make it sound as though they are playing World of Warcraft or something while driving; let me tell you, they're not. Typing doesn't take that much skill and they can hold the steering wheel with their knee on a STRAIGHT highway. So, in all due respect, all this is bullshit.