Texting while driving is now a federal offense for anyone behind the wheel of a bus or a big truck.
State law already prohibits texting for all drivers in North Carolina, but the new federal texting ban for commercial drivers carries stiffer punishment.
Under state law, the penalty for using a phone to read or type e-mail or other text messages is a $100 fine plus $130 in court costs. Under the federal rules announced Tuesday, drivers of buses and big trucks who text with any wireless device face civil or criminal fines up to $2,750.
"We want the drivers of big rigs and buses and those who share the roads with them to be safe," Ray LaHood, the U.S. transportation secretary, said in Washington.
The federal ban was applauded by a spokesman for 220 North Carolina trucking companies.
"North Carolina-based drivers are already obeying the state law," said Rick Cates, safety director for the nonprofit N.C. Trucking Association, based in Raleigh. "Anything that enhances safety on the highways, we're going to support 100 percent."
Cates said most truckers use wireless technology that is rigged to prevent text communication while the truck is rolling. When a signal announces an incoming message from a dispatcher, the driver must pull over and set the parking brake to read the message or send a new one.
Bill Graves, president of the American Trucking Association, joined LaHood to endorse the new federal rules at a news conference Tuesday. But a spokesman for another trucking group said federal officials were moving too fast.
"We support where they are going, but not how they got there," Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the 157,000-member Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said in a news release from his office in Missouri.
Spencer said his group supports efforts to improve driving safety. But he said LaHood should go through the normal rule-making process to check for possible problems before implementing the federal rules for truckers.
LaHood said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is empowered to implement the ban immediately. It covers vehicles involved in interstate commerce including big trucks, commercial vans and buses that carry at least eight passengers, and noncommercial buses with more than 15 passengers.
Researchers who studied 200 truckers reported last year that drivers who send and receive text messages take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds out of every 6 seconds while texting. That's long enough, at a speed of 65 mph, to travel more than 400 feet without looking at the road.
"The next time your church group or theater group hops on a bus, you can rest easier knowing their drivers are legally forbidden to take their eyes off the road to send or retrieve a text message," LaHood said.
