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Fed safety agency recommends banning cellphone use, texting by truckers, commercial drivers

FILE - This undated family photo provided by Jessie Crabtree shows, back row from left: Anna Esh, John Esh, Amos Esh and his wife Mary and Abner Esh. At front row from left are Rachel Esh, Sadie Esh, Betty Esh and Rose Esh. Anna, John, Rachel, Sadie and Rose. All died in the fatal vehicle accident on Interstate 65 early Friday morning March 26, 2010, near Munfordville, Ky., involving a tractor-trailer and a van. National Transportation Safety Board investigators on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011 said that 45-year-old truck driver Kenneth Laymon of Jasper, Ala., had just made an outgoing call that lasted one second before his truck struck a van carrying the group, who were on their way to a wedding in Iowa. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Jessie Crabtree).
FILE - This undated family photo provided by Jessie Crabtree shows, back row from left: Anna Esh, John Esh, Amos Esh and his wife Mary and Abner Esh. At front row from left are Rachel Esh, Sadie Esh, Betty Esh and Rose Esh. Anna, John, Rachel, Sadie and Rose. All died in the fatal vehicle accident on Interstate 65 early Friday morning March 26, 2010, near Munfordville, Ky., involving a tractor-trailer and a van. National Transportation Safety Board investigators on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011 said that 45-year-old truck driver Kenneth Laymon of Jasper, Ala., had just made an outgoing call that lasted one second before his truck struck a van carrying the group, who were on their way to a wedding in Iowa. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Jessie Crabtree).

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A U.S. highway safety agency is recommending that states ban texting and cellphone use by truckers and other commercial drivers when they are behind the wheel.

The National Transportation Safety Board passed the recommendation after a hearing in Washington on Tuesday that revealed a truck driver making a call with his cell caused a crash that killed 11 people on a Kentucky interstate in 2010.

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The truck driven by 45-year-old Kenneth Laymon of Jasper, Ala., crossed the median and crashed into a van carrying a Mennonite family and friends to a wedding in Iowa. Laymon and 10 people in the van were killed.

The recommendation to ban cellphone use and texting goes to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and all 50 states for action.

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