The National Transportation Safety Board is recommending a nationwide ban on using electronic devices in cars that distract drivers. The NTSB issued its call for the ban after a hearing on Dec. 13, 2011. It is urging all states to pass laws forbidding drivers to text, talk, surf the web or email while driving. The board issued its call to all state legislators after a hearing on December 13, 2011 that highlighted a fatal Missouri wreck in 2010 caused by a texting driver.

  Federal investigators testifying at the hearing say a teenage driver who sent and received 11 texts in 11 minutes caused the deadly chain reaction pileup that killed two and injured 38 on Aug. 5, 2010 near St. Louis.

  The accident is the latest in a series of fatal distracted driving incidents in all types of transportation in the United States that have alarmed federal authorities in recent years. A commuter rail accident that killed 25 people in California was caused by an engineer who was texting. A tugboat captain caused a fatal marine accident in Philadelphia while talking on his cell phone. Two Northwest Airlines pilots flew 100 miles past the airport where they were supposed to land while they were working on their laptops.

  A recent survey by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration revealed that half of drivers between the ages of 21 and 24 admitted sending emails or text messages behind the wheel. According to the survey, most don’t think it’s dangerous. Federal authorities estimate that on any given day one in every 100 drivers on American streets and highways is texting, emailing, surfing the web or using a handheld electronic device and that those activities have increased by 50% in the last year.

  The 19-year old driver who caused the fatal Missouri pile-up hit a tractor trailer while he was using a cell phone. His pick-up was then hit in the back by a school bus that was hit in turn by another school bus. The impact hurled the first bus on top of the pick-up, killing the teen driver. The accident also killed a 15-year-old girl in one of the buses.

  Most of the 50 students aboard the buses in the crash were high school band members on their way to a Six Flags Amusement Park near St. Louis. The teen driver of the pick-up was a reserve quarterback for the University of Missouri football team. The tractor trailer that he rear-ended was slowing at the time of the accident as it approached a construction zone on Interstate 44.

  Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the problem of distracted drivers using electronic devices is rising, despite bans passed by 35 states. The NTSB has previously recommended a ban on the use of electronic devices behind the wheel for new drivers and drivers of commercial vehicles.