WASHINGTON — The American Government is pulling at the nation’s heartstrings in its efforts to fight distracted driving.

American Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has thrown his support with an anti-distracted-driving advocacy group called “Focus Driven.”

The country’s leading transportation bureaucrat has said he thinks it’s a good idea to ask ordinary citizens whose lives have been harmed by "distracted driving" to post their stories on youtube. And they’re bound to make you cry.

Focus Driven made its case to the Feds at the recent Distracted Driving Summit in Washington, D.C.

The campaign, called “Faces of Distracted Driving” will “help families share their heartbreaking personal stories of the dangers of distracted driving.”

In one of the postings, a mother of a beautiful 13-year-old girl named Margay talks about a school-bus accident that took her daughter’s life.

The bus was stopped at a rail crossing when it was rear ended by a tractor-trailer.

According to the video, “the truck driver was talking on a cell phone at the time of the crash.”

NHTSA has issued an open invitation for others to upload videos to YouTube and to follow up by sending an e-mail to faces@distraction.gov.

NHTSA will add new videos weekly to this online video series.
For more about how the American Government is cracking down on distracted driving, visit www.distraction.gov.

The Faces of Distraction announcement comes the same week as new study out of Virginia shows that talking on hands-free cell phones might actually make truck drivers safer behind the wheel.