Are hand-held cell phone laws reducing crash risks?

Jan 29, 2010 12:17 PM

In 2001, New York became the first state to enact a law prohibiting hand-held cell phones use. Since then, six more states, plus the District of Columbia joined the ban and a number of local jurisdictions did as well. With all the discussion involving distracted driving, have these bans been effective at reducing crash risk? According to a new report by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the answer is no.

The HLDI calculated monthly insurance claims per 100 insured vehicles up to three years old in New York, District of Columbia, Connecticut, and California immediately before and after the hand-held bans was enacted. They found that collision claims in jurisdictions with bans didn’t change from before to after the laws were enacted, plus the data is comparable to claims from nearby states without the bans.

While there have been studies that show the laws have reduced cell phone use, they aren’t reducing crashes.

Last summer, the New York Times published a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report that found that from a cognitive standpoint, there is no difference between hands free and hand held cell phone use while driving. A Virginia Tech study found that head set use is no safer than hand-held use since the driver still needs to look away from the road to dial the phone. However, that study also found that merely talking on the phone--not actively dialing or handling the phone--did not increase the risk of a crash.

That creates something of a disconnect, since other studies have shown that cell phone use increases the crash risk. A previous IIHS study found a four-fold increase in crash risk after looking at driver phone records and a Canada study also found a four-fold increase in risk of property damage. The IIHS is continuing to gather information to determine the discrepancy in data.

All this leads to the fact that laws mandating hands-free devices aren’t solving the problem and it is safest to not use a cell phone in the car--hand-held or hands-free. If you need to make a call, pull over to a safe place.

—Liza Barth

Also read:
Hands-free cell phone laws: Are they effective?
Should cell phone use by drivers be illegal?
Distracted Driving Summit: The hands-free debate
Cell phone use and driving laws
Government study exposes cell phone driving dangers