On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 7:02 PM, mike <xha...@gmail.com> wrote: > http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123084040 > > *It found that month-to-month fluctuations in collision accident claims > didn't change before and after cell phone bans took effect. Nor did accident > patterns change compared with those in nearby states without cell phone > bans. * > > *"The laws aren't reducing crashes, even though we know that such laws have > reduced hand-held phone use, and several studies have established that > phoning while driving increases crash risk," said Adrian Lund, president of > the HLDI.*
As Obama might say, let's be clear about this. The study is not about the effects of banning cell phone use. The study is about how one uses cell phones, and whether or not how a cell phone is used makes anyone safer. The study determined that banning hand held phone use, but allowing for hands-free use did not change the accident rate. In other words, it is just as distracting to drivers to be using a hands-free phone as it is to be using a hand held one. How an entity constructs the story and how the results of the study are presented to the public can alter perceptions. There are plenty of studies, not disputed by any reasonable person, that clearly show that drivers on their cell phones are more likely to be involved in or to cause an accident than when not using their cell phones. Inadvertently or not, the quoted text in the original message seems to imply that it is just as safe to talk while driving as it is to not do so. That is not the case at all, and is not what the study concluded as far as I can discern. Steve ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
