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Cell-Phone Bans Haven't Reduced Crashes, Study Says
Despite bans on drivers using cell phones while driving, accident rates have not declined, a Highway Loss Data Institute study says. Despite studies showing the danger, and others showing that drivers multitask, no state bans hands-free driving. Drivers may also be distracted by passengers' conversations on cell phones.
As more states consider controls on cell-phone use in vehicles and Congress mulls a nationwide texting-while-driving ban, a study released Friday suggests the bans have not reduced the number of accidents. The Highway Loss Data Institute compared insurance claims in four states that have bans with areas where drivers can talk freely and found no significant difference.
"The laws aren't reducing crashes, even though we know that such laws have reduced handheld phone use and several studies have established that phoning while driving increases crash risk," said Adrian Lund, HLDI president.
The institute is an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an influential nonprofit agency funded by the auto industry that crash-tests new cars to provide safety ratings for insurance companies and consumers.
Do the Laws Work?
Bans against handheld cell-phone use are in effect in 17 states and the District of Columbia. The survey wasn't intended to undermine such laws, but to point out that they may not have teeth.
The studies looked at claims in New York, Connecticut, California and Washington, D.C., both before and after the bans went into effect and compared them with claims in neighboring states with no ban. This method was intended to take into account factors not related to the bans, such as seasonal and economic variations and driving patterns.
The data go back to 2001, when New York adopted the nation's first ban.
Driving Analysts Crazy
A previous IIHS study looked at drivers' phone records and found that drivers using the phone were four times more likely to be in a crash. That makes the findings of the latest study something of a paradox.
"If crash risk increases with phone use and fewer drivers use phones where it's illegal to do so, we would expect to see a decrease in crashes," said Lund, who is president of both the IIHS and HLDI. "But we aren't seeing it. Nor do we see collision-claim increases before the phone bans took effect. This is surprising, too, given what we know about the growing use of cell phones and the risk of phoning while driving. We're currently gathering data to figure out this mismatch."
Lund notes that no state currently bans hands-free cell-phone use while driving, although 21 states ban use of any communication device by new drivers. That could account for the ineffectiveness of the ban, as drivers may be just as distracted by conversations without holding a phone.
Passenger Conversation Ban?
The Automobile Association of America, which strongly advocates cell-phone bans, considers phone conversations of any kind a dangerous distraction.
"Drivers are being impressed with the idea that driving is some kind of down time and that they need to fill it with some other task," said Robert Sinclair Jr., a spokesperson for the New York chapter of the AAA. "But driving is the single most dangerous thing the average citizen of our nation can do in the course of their daily existence. It is multitasking to the Nth degree just to operate a vehicle safely."
A June 2003 study of distractions in everyday driving found that cell phones were only part of the problem. Among drivers who agreed to be monitored, 30 percent talked on the phone, 71 percent were observed eating or drinking, 40 percent were reading and writing behind the wheel, 45 percent mixed grooming with driving time, and 91.4 percent divided their attention between the road and the car's audio system .
And that was before the advent of texting. A government study found that texting while driving, not surprisingly, raised the risk of an accident by 23 percent. An executive order from President Barack Obama recently banned any texting while driving by federal employees, affecting some four million workers. The ban was later extended to all drivers of big trucks and buses.