Car Crash ER Visits Fell In States That Ban Texting While Driving, Study Says (cnn.com)

A new study finds that states with bans on texting while driving saw an average 4% reduction in emergency department visits after motor vehicle crashes, an equivalent of 1,632 traffic-related emergency department visits per year. CNN reports: Researchers examined emergency department data across 16 US states between 2007 and 2014. The states were picked based on the availability of information regarding motor vehicle accident injuries for which emergency department treatment was needed. In the United States, 47 out of 50 states currently have laws restricting texting while driving. Of the 16 states researchers looked at in the study, all but one (Arizona) had one of these laws.

The states that had texting bans, regardless of the type or who it applied to, saw a 4% average reduction in emergency department visits, according to the results published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health. The states that chose to implement primary bans on all drivers saw an 8% reduction in crash-related injuries. Drivers of all ages, even those older 65, who are typically not known for texting while driving, saw reductions in the number of injuries following crashes.

Comments

Careful with statistics

[Dan East]

You have to be careful about these kinds of statistics. There are such a tremendous amount of uncontrolled variables that chalking this up to one single factor is probably not accurate. Fatalities per mile driven has been on a downward trend since the 1980s.

Also, the fundamental statistic here - the number of emergency room visits following an accident has decreased - does not seem appropriate for this study. Essentially this says that the rate of accidents themselves may be the same (or even have increased), it's just that the likelihood of serious injury has decreased. I'm not sure if they are implying that the accidents were going to happen regardless, and texting simply made them worse? Specifically, the quote about those 65 and older, who are the least likely to text while driving, also showed "reductions in the number of injuries following crashes". Again, it does not say they were in less crashes. It says that the crashes appeared to be less severe and thus they didn't go to the ER as often. That totally sounds like the result of better engineering so crashes result in less severe injuries.

To me, this statistic would indicate an increase in safety due to automobile engineering, or that other changes that directly impact the severity of an accident (reduced speed limits) have also taken affect.

I'm not condoning texting while driving. I just don't like to see data potentially misrepresented even if it is for the "greater good", and thus no harm / no foul if the study is inaccurate.

Apparently it's a hard habit to break

[onkelonkel]

We have laws against distracted driving and some fairly harsh fines. Some people still can't seem to break the habit of texting while driving. A local driver got stopped and ticketed twice in 6 minutes by two different cops and dinged with a total of $1800 in fines and license penalties.