Report: IIHS contends cell phone bans not effective for curbing accidents

Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety, Technology

It just makes sense. Cell phone usage causes accidents, so state governments and the National Transportation Safety Board should ban phone usage while driving, right? Not so, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. CNN Money reports that studies by IIHS show that phones may not be the issue.

IIHS studied crash data from states with and without the cell phone bans in place, and it determined that there has been no reduction in crash rates. IIHS spokesman Russ Rader tells CNN Money that drivers are the biggest problem, adding "focusing on phones doesn't deal with the full spectrum of things that distract."

Automakers have attempted to solve the cell phone dilemma with hands-free calling and voice-activated controls, but that technology would be banned if the NTSB had its way. Phone users won't like that very much, and it's likely that many drivers would just ignore such a law and continue to utilize hands-free phone tech.

Distracted driving is a tricky but important topic. There were 3,000 distracted-driving accident deaths in 2010 alone.

IIHS contends cell phone bans not effective for curbing accidents originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 18 Dec 2011 10:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/12/18/iihs-contends-cell-phone-bans-not-effective-for-curbing-accident/

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