Laws That Ban Cell Phone Use Don't Seem To Be Cutting It

It was recently shown in through research that legislation banning cell phone use while driving fail to reduce crashes. According to the new Highway Loss Data Institute, there have been no reductions in crashes since cell phone bans have taken effect.

This data was gotten by comparing insurance claims for crash damage in four United States jurisdictions both before and after these bans.

Month to month fluctuations in the rates of collision claims in the areas with bans were taken into account and it was determined that there was no difference between either jurisdiction. Despite the fact that the cell phone bans have reduced hand held phone use, several studies have established that talking on the phone increases crash risk. It has been determined by two independent studies that people who use cell phones are four times as likely to crash.The information that the HLDI uses doesn't identify drivers using cell phones when their crashes occur. But the reductions of observed phone use have been so large, one would suspect that crashes should be reduced as well.

"So the new information that we have collected doesn't match what we currently know about the risk of talking on the cell phone and texting while driving," An expert points out. "Obviously, if crash risk increases with phone use and there are less people using cell phones, we would expect to see a decrease in crashes. But we aren't seeing it. Nor do we see collision claim increases before the phone bans came into play. This is surprising, too, given what we know about the growing use of cell phones and the risk of talking on the cell while driving. We're currently gathering data to figure out this mismatch."

There are a number of factors that could be diminishing the effects of hand-held phone bans on crashes. One factor is that drivers in areas with cell phone bans might be switching to hands-free phones because no state forbids any type of these phones. If this was happening, crashes wouldn't go down because the risk is about the same whether the phones are hand-held or hands-free. D.C. and twenty one states do ban beginning drivers from using hands-free phones, but these laws are difficult to enforce. - 39468