Study: Banning Texting, Talking While Driving Doesn't Decrease Crashes
According to a study from the Highway Loss Data Institute, a non-profit organization funded by the auto insurance industry, found "no reductions in crashes after hand-held phone bans take effect."
The HDLI study compared automobile collision insurance claims from states that ban cell phone use while driving before and after the bans were enforced and data from states that don't have bans.
"The laws aren't reducing crashes, even though we know that such laws have reduced hand-held phone use, and several studies have established that phoning while driving increases crash risk," said Adrian Lund, president of the HDLI and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The HDLI's study found compared monthly collision claims per 100 insured vehicle years for vehicles up to three years old during the months immediately before and after hand-held phone use was banned while driving in New York, Washington D.C., Connecticut and California. Additional data was collected from nearby states without such bans. Research found that month-to-month fluctuations in rates of collision claims in areas with bans didn't change from before to after texting and talking while driving were outlawed. The study also said patterns did not change in comparison with trends in the jurisdictions without bans.
While the HDLI admits that its database doesn't identify drivers using cell phones when their crashes occur, but reductions in claims due to bans were expected. However, in New York, the study revealed a decrease in claim frequency, but that started well before New York state's 2001 ban on using hand-held devices while driving. Trends in the other three areas with bans did not change.
"So the new findings don't match what we already know about the risk of phoning and texting while driving," Lund said in the statement. "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. 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 added that other factors may be eroding the effects of hand-held phone bans on crashes. For example the use of hands-free devices, which are still a driver distraction, may keep the element of risk the same as talking with a hand-held device.
"Whatever the reason, the key finding is that crashes aren't going down where hand-held phone use has been banned,' Lund pointed out. "This finding doesn't auger well for any safety payoff from all the new laws that ban phone use and texting while driving."