Talking On the Phone While Driving Not So Dangerous After All

Dorianny writes "New research which takes advantage of the increase in cell phone use after 9pm due to the popularity of 'free nights and weekends' plans showed no corresponding increase in crash rates (PDF). Additionally, the researchers analyzed the effects of legislation banning cellphone use, enacted in several states, and similarly found that the legislation had no effect on the crash rate. 'One thought is that drivers may compensate for the distraction of cellphone use by selectively deciding when to make a call or consciously driving more carefully during a call.' Score this a -1 for common sense."

Comments

Re:Texting on the other hand...

[LocalH]

Legally, it's texting. If they get into a wreck, if the phone records were pulled it would show that indeed, they were texting at that time. I don't think these anti-texting-while-driving laws make a distinction between different input methods.