TRUCKERS' COMPLAIN * Canada - Trucking firms, drivers debate flying rock dangers

Trucking companies:  Rocks flying off the backs of trucks and striking car windshields don't add up

Ottawa,CAN -CBC News -Mar 24, 2011: ...   Nearly a week after an Ottawa woman's terrifying near-miss on a west-end road, in which a rock smashed her windshield and showered her with shards of glass, truckers are saying their loads can rarely be faulted in such incidents...  The more likely scenario, companies said, is that a chunk of asphalt or roadside rubble can get lodged between a truck's dual tires and later get flung backwards...  But dozens of motorists who have had their windows struck by rocks beg to differ...  Kyla Helpin was driving north on Carp Road near McGee Side Road last Friday when she said a "baseball-sized" rock fell from a passing dump truck and shattered the windshield in front of her face...  Jason Birch, a father of two, was killed in an eerily similar incident last October...  Tracy Braun was unequivocal about what happened to her when she was working as a first-aid attendant for a construction company...   "It literally came straight at me," she said. "Definitely, it came off the truck. There was no doubt about it. I saw it coming right at me" ...    (Photo by Kyla Helpin - A rock shattered the top of the windshield of Kyla Helpin's car last Friday)

CELL PHONES BAN * Canada & USA - All Canadian provinces now ban hand-held phones while driving

Each of Canada’s 10 provinces has enacted bans on the use of hand-held electronic devices while driving

Fredericton,New Brunswick,Canada -Land Line Magazine, by David Tanner -18 March 2011: -- New Brunswick will be the last province to begin enforcing a ban on the use of hand-held electronic devices while driving once enforcement begins April 1...  The ban applies to the handling or manipulation of hand-held cell phones, texting devices and portable entertainment devices while driving. It also prohibits the manual programming of GPS units while driving...  TVs, monitors, DVD players and computer screens will not be permitted in New Brunswick “within the visual range of the operator or driver of a motor vehicle,” according to information released by the New Brunswick Department of Public Safety. Violators will be subject to fines of $172.50 plus three penalty points on a driver’s license...

* USA - Technology solving cell-phone truck use dilemma

Washington,DC,USA -Fleet Owner, by Wendy Leavitt -Mar 18, 2011: -- Last December, Sec. of Transportation Ray LaHood, proposed banning interstate bus and truck drivers from using handheld cell phones while operating a vehicle. Meanwhile, the number of productivity apps that can be loaded onto cell phones just keeps mushrooming—leaving fleets to seriously wonder how viable an IT platform cell phones will be for trucking business solutions down the road...  However, it may not be time to hang up on cell phones in trucks. Thanks to some enterprising new solution providers, it may be possible to take advantage of the benefits of mobile communication devices without risking a fleet’s safety rating in the process...  The availability of various technologies to restrict and track in-vehicle use of mobile devices is likely to continue to expand right along with the growth in the functionality and use of mobile devices themselves...  Think about how the number of active and passive onboard safety systems has grown in an effort to make the business of hauling freight by truck safer and more efficient. Cell phone usage control and tracking systems are the data corollary—tools to make the task of sharing information safer for those moving goods and people down the highway...