(Image Source: Center For Transportation Research News)

BY KERRY LEARY

ANCHOR ANA COMPAIN-ROMERO

The National Transportation Safety Board recommended Tuesday to ban all drivers in the United States from using cell phones and portable electronic devices. Fox Business has more.

“The NTSB is calling for a nationwide ban on using cell phones and text-messaging devices while driving. Their recommendation right now is the most far-reaching yet by the national transportation safety board which in the past 10 years increasingly sought to limit use of portable electronic devices.”

The new move was spurred by information regarding a fatal car wreck in Missouri in 2010. Federal investigators have just discovered the driver blamed for the accident was texting while driving. KSDK has that story.

“The NTSB says the 19-year-old driver sent eleven texts in the eleven minutes before the accident. He died when he drove his pickup truck into the back of a big rig in August 2010, sparking a chain reaction involving two Saint James school buses. The crash near Gray Summit also killed a student on one of the buses. 38 were injured. In the report, the NTSB chairman says it's clear the man was manually, cognitively and visually distracted.”

According to reports, the last of the eleven texts was sent right before the crash. Currently, only 10 states ban handheld devices -- 35 ban texting while driving. A writer for SlashGear supports the ban -- saying a phone call or a text never trump a life.

“You ought to know that this narrator thinks there’s no good reason to take a call, make a call, or tap away at a phone for any reason while driving a vehicle capable of destroying human life.”

But, should such a ban be a federal issue? Auto news site Jalopnik agrees texting while driving is dangerous, but argues that the decision to ban handheld devices entirely should be a state one.

“ … this is an area that really should continue to be under the jurisdiction of states. But, considering that texting while driving has actually been deemed less safe than driving drunk, the NTSB's stance will likely provide cover for more states to pass anti-texting laws. As they should.”

According to CBS, a NTSB study shows that at any given moment on America’s streets and highways last year, nearly one in every 100 drivers was using a handheld electronic device.

Transcript by Newsy.