WHERE IS THE THIRD HAND? The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute issued a report that found that when drivers of heavy trucks texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting. Since it takes at least one hand to drive (one would hope that drivers of heavy trucks were actually using both hands) and two hands to text and since yesterday’s blog bragged that I am a member of Mensa, that allows me to ask the stupid rhetorical question, “Where is the third hand?” This study, which was funded for $300,000 by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, had trucks fitted with video cameras that captured the drivers' faces in the six seconds leading up to and during a crash or a near miss. Six millions miles of driving was observed. The videos showed texting to be an extremely high-risk behavior, mainly because it is associated with drivers taking their eyes off the road.

The District of Columbia and 14 states ban texting while driving, (Illinois has a bill waiting for Governor Quinn’s signature on the ban) and yet the truck drivers texted while being taped. So the heavy truck drivers knew they were being videotaped (no hidden cameras!) and yet they risked their jobs and texted while driving. The stupidity factor here is incredible! Were the drivers that were captured texting while driving fired? (My second stupid rhetorical question.)

The study also showed that right before a crash or near-collision; drivers spent nearly five seconds looking at their texting devices, which was enough time at 55 mph to cover more than the length of a football field. Now for my last stupid rhetorical question-when was the last time a trucker was driving at the rate of only 55 miles per hour? The study should have used higher rates of speed in its analysis.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, funded by us taxpayers has the mission statement that they are,” focused on reducing crashes, injuries, and fatalities involving large trucks and buses.” So $300,000 of our money was spent to report that texting while driving a heavy truck is bad. I could have reported that for free if anyone had asked me.