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Hand Up the Cell Phone While Driving

By Ben Glass

Currently, the legal trend of banning the use of hand-held phones while driving is spreading. Currently, Connecticut , New Jersey , New York , Washington D.C., and the Virgin Islands have passed laws banning the devices. California and Washington State have as well, with laws going into effect on July 1. The devices have also been banned in a number of individual cities and Utah and New Hampshire have included them under their distracted driving laws.

The use of hand-held cell phones by novice drivers has been limited in 17 states and D.C. and school bus drivers specifically are banned from using them in 15 states and D.C., except in the case of emergency.

Alaska , Minnesota , New Jersey , and Washington State have also found it necessary to ban text-messaging while driving and about a dozen others are considering the same ban.

According to studies, there is a significant increase in the risk of an accident if the driver is on the phone.

The increase has been found to range from a factor of 1.3 times higher (found in Virginia Tech's "100-car study" in which researchers video taped the actions of 100 drivers) to four times higher (found in Canada and Australia through research of the incidents leading to traffic personal injuries) to as much as five times high in simulator studies performed at the University of Utah, where researchers say the effect is equal to that of driving drunk.

Text-messaging seems to be an even greater distraction. In the 100-car study, the risk factor increased to 2.8 and in the Utah study, it increased to 8.3.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ben Glass

Full post as published by Northern Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer on July 11, 2008 (boomark / email).