Drivers ignoring cell phone bans

[doug]

Drivers ignoring cell phone bans
Motorists who use cell phones can be ticketed in several states, but low fines and lax enforcement limit some laws' effectiveness. Teens may be the biggest offenders.
By Amy Roe
New Jersey urges drivers to "put down the phone." Virginia tells teens to "hang up and drive." Increasingly, states are banning drivers from using handheld cell phones, but that doesn't mean people are listening.

With little knowledge or enforcement of the bans in some states and no insurance penalties for many drivers, it's not clear whether the laws are much of a deterrent.

Staking out high school parking lots in North Carolina, researchers found the number of teen drivers on cell phones was essentially unchanged after the state banned the practice, according to a study released last week by the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Two months before the ban's December 2006 start, 11% of teen drivers were observed using cell phones as they left school in the afternoon. About five months after the ban went into effect, 12% of teen drivers were spotted using phones.

Girls were more likely than boys to use their cell phones while driving. SUV drivers were more likely than sedan drivers, and solo drivers were more likely than those with passengers, the study said.

Cell phone use remained steady -- about 13% -- at comparison sites in South Carolina, where teen driver cell phone use isn't restricted.

Enforcement varies
Motorists caught chatting on a handheld cell can be hit with a ticket in four states -- Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Utah -- as well as the District of Columbia. Bans will be effective July 1 in California and Washington state.

No state bans all types of cell phone use (handheld and hands-free) while driving, but 17 states and the District of Columbia do for novice drivers.

Only two states -- Washington and New Jersey -- ban text messaging for all drivers, but others are expected to follow, beginning with Minnesota on Aug. 1. A 2008 survey by Nationwide insurance reported that 18% of motorists said they text-messaged while driving.

The level of enforcement varies. In some states (see chart below), drivers can be ticketed only if they've been stopped for another offense. In 2007, Connecticut State Police stopped more than 7,000 motorists for violating the state's cell phone ban but didn't necessarily give the $100 ticket.

New York has issued 1.3 million tickets for the offense since its law went into effect in 2001.

In North Carolina, where cell phone use is banned only for school bus drivers and motorists under 18, the state Highway Patrol wrote 35 tickets for the infraction in 2007. The tickets are $25 each and delay by six months a teen driver's progression through the state's graduated license program. As of recently, the agency had issued 20 such tickets this year.

The Public Policy Institute of California concluded in May that low penalties -- the state's base fine will be $20 -- likely wouldn't deter drivers even if the law is strictly enforced. (A first offense in Los Angeles County will run about $93, however.)

No hit to insurance
The insurance industry has not taken a position on the bans, said Carolyn Gorman, the vice president of Insurance Information Institute, an industry-funded trade association.

Of the states banning handheld cell phone use among all adult drivers, only Utah assesses points against a license. A driver who accumulates a certain number of points may have to take driving lessons, pay fines or surrender his or her license.

"It would be zero points on their license," said Shane Robinson, a southeast regional spokesman for insurance company Allstate, of most drivers caught chatting. "From that standpoint, it wouldn't affect our rates."

That doesn't mean there wouldn't any consequences.

"Obviously, if you're doing this and getting into accidents, it's going to affect your premiums," said Bob Passmore of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, an industry trade group.

Like driving drunk?
Why are the bans increasingly popular?

A growing body of research links drivers' cell phone use to car accidents. Nearly 80% of crashes and 65% of near crashes involved some form of driver inattention within three seconds before the event, according to a 2006 report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.

Talking on a cell phone while driving may tax the brain, a study suggest. NBC's Helen Chickering reports.

Cell phone use and drowsiness were the primary causes of driver inattention.

A 2006 study by University of Utah psychologist David Strayer said drivers talking on cell phones -- including those using hands-free devices -- are as prone to accidents as those who drive drunk. It's the conversation, Strayer reported, not the device, that distracts drivers.

Teen drivers targeted
Teenagers are involved in three times more fatal crashes than other drivers, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and cell phone use is highest among young drivers: 8% of drivers age 16 to 24, compared with 4% of drivers 25 to 69.

But a ban on cell phones is hard to enforce when it applies only to some drivers, because it's hard to guess a person's age, said Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Also part of the problem in North Carolina, he said, is that the ban is little known, particularly among parents.

"We know with other traffic-safety laws, visible enforcement makes a difference," Rader said. "Under the cell phone ban, if people don't think they're likely to be stopped, they're not likely to hang up and drive."


Cell phones and driving: Laws by state

State Handhelds banned All cell phones banned

Enforcement*

Alabama
No
No
--

Alaska
No
No
--

Arizona
No
School bus drivers
Primary

Arkansas
No
School bus drivers
Primary

California
Yes (effective July 1)
Drivers younger than 18 (effective July 1); school bus and transit drivers
Primary

Colorado
No
Learner's permit holders
Secondary

Connecticut
Yes
Learner's permit holders; drivers younger than 18; school bus drivers
Primary

Delaware
No
Learner's permit and intermediate license holders; school bus drivers
Primary

District of Columbia
Yes
Learner's permit holders; school bus drivers
Primary

Florida
No
No
--

Georgia
No
School bus drivers
Primary

Hawaii
No
No
--

Idaho
No
No
--

Illinois
By jurisdiction
Learner's permit holders; drivers younger than 19; school bus drivers
Primary

Indiana
No
No
--

Iowa
No
No
--

Kansas
No
No
--

Kentucky
No
School bus drivers
Primary

Louisiana
No
No
--

Maine
No
Learner's permit and intermediate license holders
Primary

Maryland
No
Learner's permit and intermediate license holders
Secondary

Massachusetts
By jurisdiction
School bus drivers
Primary

Michigan
By jurisdiction
No
--

Minnesota
No; text messaging prohibited (effective Aug. 1)
Learner's permit holders; provisional license holders during the first 12 months; school bus drivers
Primary

Mississippi
No
No
--

Missouri
No
No
--

Montana
No
No
--

Nebraska
No
Learner's permit and intermediate license holders younger than 18
Secondary

Nevada
No
No
--

New Hampshire
No
No
--

New Jersey
Yes; text messaging also prohibited
Learner's permit and intermediate license holders; school bus drivers
Primary

New Mexico
By jurisdiction
No
--

New York
Yes
No
Primary

North Carolina
No
Drivers younger than 18; school bus drivers
Primary

North Dakota
No
No
--

Ohio
By jurisdiction
No
--

Oklahoma
No
No
--

Oregon
No
Learner's permit and intermediate license holders
Secondary

Pennsylvania
By jurisdiction
No
--

Rhode Island
No
Drivers younger than 18; school bus drivers
Primary

South Carolina
No
No
--

South Dakota
No
No
--

Tennessee
No
Learner's permit and intermediate license holders; school bus drivers
Primary

Texas
No
Intermediate license holders for first six months; bus drivers when a passenger younger than 18 is present
Primary

Utah
Yes
No
Secondary

Vermont
No
No
--

Virginia
No
Drivers younger than 18; school bus drivers (effective July 1)
Secondary for teens; primary for school bus drivers (effective July 1)

Washington
Yes (effective July 1); text messaging prohibited
No
Secondary

West Virginia
No
Learner's permit and intermediate license holders
Secondary

Wisconsin
No
No
--

Wyoming
No
No
--



*Under secondary laws, an officer must have some other reason to stop a vehicle before citing a driver for using a cell phone. Laws without this restriction are called primary.

California and Utah have unusual provisions. In California, an officer will be able to stop any driver of any age holding a cell phone and talking on it, but officers won't be able to use checkpoints to enforce the ban for under-18 drivers. In Utah, a moving violation other than speeding caused by use of a handheld cell phone is considered careless driving.

© 2008 Microsoft

[doug]

updated 1:25 p.m. ET Jan. 29, 2010
Study: Cell phone bans don't stop car crashes
Study examined insurance claims before and after such bans took effect
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A new study from the insurance industry finds that state laws banning wireless calling or texting while driving have not resulted in fewer vehicle crashes.

The study, conducted by the Highway Loss Data Institute and released Friday, examined insurance claims from crashes before and after such bans took effect in California, New York, Connecticut and Washington, D.C.

The organization finds that claims rates have not gone down after the laws were enacted. It also finds no change in patterns compared with other states without such bans.

The Highway Loss Data Institute, an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, says its findings "don't match what we already know about the risk of phoning and texting while driving" and says it is gathering data to "figure out this mismatch."

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

updated 7:55 p.m. ET March 29, 2010
Wireless
Think you're a ‘supertasker’? Probably not
Study finds very few can drive safely, talk on cell phone at the same time

A student talks on a hands-free cell phone while operating a high-tech driving simulator during a University of Utah study in 2008. In addition to driving like impaired drunken drivers with blood-alcohol levels at the legal limit of 0.08 percent, the study showed chatty motorists bog down traffic.
TechNewsDaily
A very small percentage of the population can safely drive while talking on their cell phones, but chances are high that you're not one of these "supertaskers."

In a new study, psychologists have identified a group of people who can successfully do two things at once, in this case talking on a cell phone while operating a driving simulator without noticeable impairment.

Supertaskers only make up about 2.5 percent of the general population, however, said study team member James Watson of the University of Utah.

"Given the number of individuals who routinely talk on the phone while driving, one would have hoped that there would be a greater percentage of supertaskers," Watson said.

"And while we’d probably all like to think we are the exception to the rule, the odds are overwhelmingly against it. In fact, the odds of being a supertasker are about as good as your chances of flipping a coin and getting five heads in a row."

20 percent longer to hit brakes

In the study, the researchers assessed the performance of 200 participants over a single task (simulated freeway driving), and again with a second demanding activity (a cell phone conversation that involved memorizing words and solving math problems). Performance was then measured in four areas: braking reaction time, following distance, memory, and math execution.

As expected, the driving ability of most of the participants suffered if they simultaneously talked on their cell phones.

It took them 20 percent longer to hit the brakes when needed, and following distances increased 30 percent as the drivers failed to keep pace with the simulated traffic. Memory performance declined 11 percent, and the ability to do math problems fell 3 percent.

However, when supertaskers talked while driving, they displayed no change in their normal braking times, following distances or math ability, and their memory abilities actually improved 3 percent.

'Something special'

“There is clearly something special about the supertaskers,” said study co-author David Strayer, also of the University of Utah.

“Why can they do something that most of us cannot? Psychologists may need to rethink what they know about multitasking in light of this new evidence. We may learn from these very rare individuals that the multitasking regions of the brain are different and that there may be a genetic basis for this difference."

Watson and Strayer are now studying expert fighter pilots under the assumption that those who can pilot a jet aircraft are also likely to be natural supertaskers.

The study will be published later this year in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.

© 2010 TechNewsDaily