Federal officials have announced a proposed rule to ban cell phone and texting by on-duty train operators. This move comes after a recent determination by National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials that a California Metrolink engineer was texting moments before he ran through a red light and caused a fatal train accident that killed 25 people and seriously injured more than 150. In that case, the commuter train collided with a freight train because the engineer drove the train right through the red light. Officials believe he was distracted because of the texting and failed to notice the signal.

Electronic Devices Off-Limits for Crew Members

The latest proposed ruling by the U.S. Department of Transportation is part of a series of actions taken by the federal government to battle the problem of distracted driving. Earlier this year, the department announced its plans to make permanent a rule banning texting by drivers of commercial vehicles such as big rigs and buses. If a similar rule is adopted for train operators, it would ban hand-held devices such as cell phones and personal digital assistants or PDAs for critical railroad employees including locomotive engineers, conductors, switchmen and other train employees. Such devices may be used only under extreme emergency situations, according to the new rule.

Distracted Driving is Dangerous

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), nearly 6,000 people were killed and about 500,000 sustained serious personal injuries as a result of distracted driving in 2008. These accidents specifically involved drivers who were either texting or using a hand-held cell phone while operating a vehicle.

The federal government's move to ban electronic devices in trains, consistently across the United States, is certainly a prudent and much needed one. Several states including California have passed these bans, but many more have yet to pass similar distracted driving laws for commercial vehicles such as buses or trucks and even trains. Operating a commuter or a freight train does demand the undivided attention of all crew members.

Human error is one of the most leading causes of train accidents in the United States. These errors can occur even when there are no cell phones or PDAs involved. The probability of these tragic errors occurring is significantly increased when crew members are using any electronic communication devices. As a California personal injury lawyer, who has represented numerous injured victims hurt by distracted drivers, I absolutely support this new federal rule and hope it becomes the law of the land very soon.

Would you feel safer taking a train where all crew members are banned from using cell phones and other electronic devices?