A report by the National Transportation Safety Board on a tragic 2010 crash near Munfordville, Ky., underscores the importance of state and federal policymakers moving forward on a number of items in American Trucking Associations' progressive safety agenda.

"This crash, like all truck-involved crashes, is a tragedy and we're hopeful that NTSB's recommendations will lead to safer highways for all motorists, including professional truck drivers for whom the road is their workplace," ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said. "We're also encouraged that a number of the Board's recommendations fit with ATA's progressive safety agenda, which we put forward as a way of reducing crashes on our highways."

Like NTSB, Graves said ATA supports the enactment of prohibitions on the use of handheld cell phones to talk or text by all motorists, not just commercial drivers.

"The 2009 Virginia Tech study on driver distraction, widely recognized as the 'gold standard,' in the field, highlights texting and talking on a handheld phone, as well as dialing and reaching for a phone, as incredibly risky behavior," Graves said. "Enacting bans on these behaviors will go a long way toward reducing crash risk for all of us."

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