Texting while Driving – Cracking down on Crackberries

Massachusetts banned the practice of texting while driving on September 30th, making it the 30th State to have passed such a ban. The news comes at the same time that the Highway Loss Data Institute released its study on the effect of texting bans on crash rates in California, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Washington, compared with patterns of claims in nearby states. The HDLI study found that crash rates increased slightly in these states after they instituted texting bans. The report suggests that bans actually cause an increase in crashes since drivers won’t stop using phones, and now hide their phones in their laps to keep them out of sight of cops, thus making the practice even riskier by taking their eyes off the road.

Such results understandably have many people concerned. But should they? The Department of Transportation found exactly the opposite results, and Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood called the HLDI’s study “completely misleading”. So what accounts for the HDLI’s interpretation?

Bias: the HLDI study was funded by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The study was conducted by insurance companies, who are noted for being against the texting bans. According to IIHS, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should be focusing less on texting while driving, and more on drunk driving and speeding, which cause more deaths than distracted driving.
Change in Habits: the study covers a period when texting increased dramatically. As Slate’s James Ledbetter put it: “If text messaging is rising 60 percent every year, it stands to reason that the number of people texting and driving is also going up by some significant factor.” If the laws had not been in place, how many more crashes would there have been?
Inconsistency in Reporting: every state and district has different standards for reporting “distraction” as a cause of accident, making it hard to compare claims within and between states.

The reason texting bans are on the rise is that more and more research shows that distracted driving impairs driver reaction time and judgement as much as if they had been drinking. In most states, texting while driving is a primary offense, just like a DUI: “an officer may cite a driver for using a handheld cell phone without any other traffic offense taking place.” Studies like those conducted by Dave Strayer, Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah, show that we are terrible multitaskers. Driving requires enough simultaneous actions as is; throw in the added distraction of having to pay attention to calls and texts, and you have a recipe for tragedy. In 2009 alone,vehicle crashed that involved distracted driving killed 5,474 people and injured 448,000; 18% of the fatalities involved the use of mobile phones. (Department of Transportation Traffic Safety Facts).

In order to counteract this trend, there’s an increased effort to create tough laws on texting. Laws themselves may not be enough, though, to keep people from answering email and responding to texts. Ray LaHood pushes for a three-pronged approach: “all the reputable research we have says that tough laws, good enforcement and increased public awareness will help put a stop to the deadly epidemic of distracted driving on our roads.” The most important factor, behind having an enforceable law on the books, is to have a large-scale public awareness campaign. Efforts to curb drunk driving and promote seat belt use “were once derided as ineffectual, too,” writes Rob Anderson of the Boston Globe, “but police officers found ways to enforce those laws, and the public eventually came to do most of the policing itself.”

Before you get behind the wheel, make sure you know the laws in your state. Check your local DMV for more information.

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