America gets the message on driving and texting

America is to ban truck and bus drivers from texting as it tries to catch up with much of the developed world in mobile phone road safety.

Offenders face fines of up to £1,700, the government's Transportation Department said.

Nineteen states already prohibit all drivers from texting behind the wheel. Another 10 restrict texting by learner drivers.

Research by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration shows that drivers who send and receive text messages take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds out of every six seconds while texting.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has been campaigning against texting and phone use while driving.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order directing federal employees not to text while driving government-owned vehicles or with government-owned equipment. Federal employees were required to comply with the ban.

The Transportation Department and safety advocates have also joined forces to create FocusDriven, an organisation to campaign against phone use or texting on handheld computers while driving. The organisation will be modelled after Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, which has successfully lobbied for tougher drunk-driving laws.