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More Than 1 In 4 Car Crashes Involve Cellphone Use

Posted by samzenpus on from the keep-your-eyes-on-the-road-your-hands-upon-the-wheel dept.

schwit1 (797399) writes "Texting and driving is dangerous but a new survey finds talking on a cellphone while behind the wheel may be even worse. The National Safety Council's annual report found 26 percent of all crashes are tied to phone use, but noted just 5 percent involved texting. Safety advocates are lobbying now for a total ban on driver phone use, pointing to studies that headsets do not reduce driver distraction."

5 of 367 comments (clear)

  1. Did the accident rate increase? by geneing · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The main question is if the total accident rate has increased since cell phones became ubiquitous. As far as I know the answer is "no", the accident rate actually went down. "Tied to" doesn't mean "caused", or "increased the chance of". Usually "tied to" is a lazy qualifier from a lazy researcher or journalist.

    1. Re:Did the accident rate increase? by lgw · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You should see how the books are cooked for "alcohol-related" crashes. Beer in the trunk of the car that was blindsided? Alcohol-related! Agenda-driven statistics.

      I can certainly believe 1-in-4 if you include passengers in the not-at-fault car on the phone as "phone related"

      Remember, there are lies, damn lies, and anonymous posts on the internet! Or something like that.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  2. Re:WHere is the paper by mspohr · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you'd bothered to RTFA where they explain the research and the methodology, it would have answered your questions... Yes, it's based on actual "good studies" and no, it's not just a guess.
    Here's a clue for the clueless: McEvoy et al (2005); Redelmeier & Tibshirani (1997)

    --
    I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
  3. Re:Another amazing fact by ben_white · · Score: 5, Informative

    You are an idiot.

    Women between the ages of 30 and 50 (i.e. mothers) have the lowest fatality and accident rates of any other age or gender group.

    See here as one example of easily obtainable information: http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topic...

    --
    cheers - ben

    --
    cheers, ben

    Never miss a good chance to shut up -- Will Rogers
  4. "I WILL GIVE UP MY MOBILE..." by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Funny

    "When you PRY it from my COLD, DEAD... oh, yeah. Well, never mind. Carry on and all that."

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."