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Bans on texting and calling while driving do not reduce crashes: U.S. study


September 28, 2010   by Canadian Underwriter


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Neither texting bans nor bans on hand-held phone use while driving have actually reduced crash risk, according to a report published online by the U.S. Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), a division of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Non-compliance is a likely reason why the bans aren’t reducing crashes, the study suggests.
The study looked at crash frequencies in four U.S. study states that have banned texting and cell phones while driving (California, Louisiana, Minnesota and Washington).
In these states, among 18-24 year olds (the group most likely to text or call while driving), 45% reported doing so anyway in states that bar all drivers from texting or calling.
This is just shy of the 48% of the drivers who reported phoning or texting while driving in states that do not have such bans.
Also, none of the four states with bans reported any decrease in crash frequency after the bans were implemented.
“The point of texting bans is to reduce crashes, and by this essential measure the laws are ineffective,” said Adrian Lund, president of both HLDI and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Nevertheless, Lund cautions that “finding no reduction in crashes, or even a small increase, doesn’t mean it’s safe to text and drive, though. There’s a crash risk associated with doing this. It’s just that bans aren’t reducing this crash risk.”
The report notes taking away the distraction of cell phones and texting may mean drivers are simply defaulting to other driving distractions in their place.
“Public policy that focuses only on one source of distraction (for example, cell phone conversations or texting) may fail simply because it doesn’t recognize that drivers always are subject to distraction.”


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