Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Cell Phone and Texting Laws Don’t Lead to Greater Safety

Huh.

A new insurance industry study has found that state laws banning the use of handheld devices to make calls or send text messages while driving have not resulted in fewer vehicle crashes, the Associated Press reported.

The study, released Friday by the Highway Loss Data Institute, examined insurance claims from crashes before and after such bans took effect in California, New York, Connecticut and Washington, D.C.

The organization found that claims rates did not go down after the laws were enacted. It also found no change in patterns compared with nearby states without such bans.

(7) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1715 hrs
Politics + Politics - General + Technology

  1. People are going to do what they want, no matter what laws are passed. People will always exercise their right to be stupid. Just watch them.

    Posted by Billiam on February 02, 2010 at 1720 hrs


  2. It’s easy.  Just ban teeanage drivers and what do you know, no more texting while driving.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 02, 2010 at 1858 hrs


  3. SI, I’d support a ban on teenage drivers—I have two of them…

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 02, 2010 at 2214 hrs


  4. “Banning” the behavior, as we all know, is a far cry from STOPPING the behavior. The results of the study aren’t surprising. I doubt one driver in 100 would refrain from talking or texting while driving based on a law. After all, how likely are you to get caught? It’s not like speeding or running red lights, where there’s an observable action that has been banned.

    That said, I still support anti-cell-phone while driving laws. All evidence points to the added risks of doing it, and if nothing else society needs to proclaim its intolerance of such poor behavior. Then at least every once in a while someone can get ticketed; in the meantime, those who have wrecks while messing around with their phones can get raked over the coals civilly for presumptively acting in a reckless fashion. The insurance companies can poke around and get the phone records after the fact and likely clean up, since the breaking of a traffic law is rarely looked upon favorably.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 02, 2010 at 2248 hrs


  5. “Cell Phone and Texting Laws Don’t Lead to Greater Safety”

    Neither do taking off our shoes at the airport or throwing our shampoo away.  We ban lots of things that may or may not affect us.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 03, 2010 at 0734 hrs


  6. Seems like more laws are passed to annoy us than actually work.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 03, 2010 at 0837 hrs


  7. You guys are all wearin’ your seatbelts at all times while driving your veehickel now, right?!

    Good. That means that social control is working properly.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 03, 2010 at 0913 hrs


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