The National Safety Council recently announced new findings regarding cell phone use and driving. NSC states that every year at least 1.6 million car accidents are caused by cell phone use. This number was previously thought to be far less, or no more than 600,000 accidents caused by cell phones.
“We now know that at least 1.6 million crashes are caused by drivers using cell phones and texting,” said Janet Froetscher, president & CEO of the National Safety Council. “We know that cell phone use is a very risky distraction and texting is even higher risk. We now know that cell phone use causes many more crashes than texting. The main reason is that millions more drivers use cell phones than text,” she said. “That is why we need to address both texting and cell phone use on our roads.”
The NSC advocates a total ban on cell phone use while driving. It says that its study was based in part on statistics from from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and from peer-reviewed research that quantifies the risk of using a cell phone and texting while driving.
Although we at the Davis Law Group cannot state that 25% of the accident cases we handle are caused by cell phone use, we can state that we have noticed a measurable increase in the cases we handle where there is an allegation that the other driver was either talking on the cell phone or texting while driving.
If you’ve been seriously injured in an accident and believe the other driver was using a cell phone at the time, you should speak to an attorney. Usually the time is limited to collect and/or subpoena cell phone records to verify that the at-fault driver was using a cell phone. The fact of cell phone use is also a very important factor to use when attempting to settle the claim for maximum value. We at DLG have had good success at using the fact of cell phone usage as an aggravating factor to achieve an excellent recover for our clients.
on Jan 15th, 2010 at 10:38 am
The National Science Foundation is intentionally avoiding data that can decrease and possibly eliminate these deaths. Their focus on banning use of technology in the vehicle, (throwing out the baby with the water), is the dangerous distraction here and it is distracting the rest of the country from finding a technical solution that can modulate the use of the phone with safe driving.
The cause of distractions is having a phone to the ear which causes the zone out effect that the NSC refers to as the Cognitive Distraction. All the research referenced by the NSC uses ear pieces which has the same effect as holding the phone to ones ear minus the hand held confusion. During the National Driver Distraction Summit, the NSC and all attendees were made aware of Dr. Amit Almor Univ. South Carolina research which shows that the direction of the sound affects the Cognitive Distraction, but they continue to choose to ignore it. Even people that make money out of selling ear pieces (One of the largest makers of Earpieces in France, Parrot,) already stopped producing them because they recognized their dangers.
Hands Free with the right technology is great and will reduce and even eliminate the accidents the NSC is worried about. 1st: The phone should not be handled manually and should be docked to a special cradle. 2nd The cradle will monitor the vehicle to determine if the driver is in a critical situation, e.g. passing or breaking or turning hard before it allows a call to come through. This part alone eliminates 44% of accidents. 3rd, the sound should come at the driver from the windshield so they do not have to picture the caller in their head. Lastly, to answer hang up and dial are handled remotely from the steering wheel using a smart toggle sensor with an audible menu so the driver does not have to look at anything.
This technology exists and is available on http://actplace.net. If we can make it safe, why ban it? What is really behind the NSC zealous attack on the cell phone that is making them loose sight of their true goal?
Mouhamad A. Naboulsi, President, Applied Computer Technologies, Inc.
on Jan 18th, 2010 at 12:22 am
Thank you for your interesting comments. If technology can actually reduce and/or eliminate the risks that come with using a cell phone while driving, them I am all for it. Currently I use a hands-free device (bluetooth) which I believe minimizes the distraction one experiences while using a cell. In that situation I can’t see how using a hands-free device is any different than talking to a passenger sitting right next to you. Thanks again.
on Feb 24th, 2010 at 6:07 am
The National Safety Council announced last week that it estimates at least 28% of all traffic crashes — or at least 1.6 million crashes each year — are caused by drivers using cell phones and texting. NSC estimates that 1.4 million crashes each year are caused by drivers using cell phones and a minimum of 200,000 additional crashes each year are caused by drivers who are texting.
on Feb 24th, 2010 at 6:26 am
It is estimated that over 100 million cellular subscribers in the United States use their phone while driving. Because of safety concerns associated with cell phone use while driving, several legislative efforts have been made to restrict cell phone use on the road . In most cases, the legislation restricts the use of hand-held phones but permits the use of hands-free phones while driving. In fact, several researchers have reported that driving is impaired by concurrent cell phone use, however, the precise impact of cell-phone driving on traffic safety is unknown. One well respected research team found epidemiological evidence suggesting that “the relative risk of being in a traffic accident while using a cell-phone is similar to the hazard associated with driving with a blood alcohol level at the legal limit”.
A recent study conducted by the University of Utah has found that this is in fact, the case. The study found that although intoxicated drivers and cell phone using drivers performed differently during the tests with cell phone user exhibiting sluggish behavior (slower reactions), intoxicated drivers were more aggressive. The key finding was that cell phone users actually exhibited greater impairments (i.e. more accidents and less responsive driving behavior) than drivers who were legally intoxicated. Another important finding was that there was little difference between hand-held and hands-free cell phones.