Hands-free phones are lifesavers, study says

Mike Stuckey Senior news editor • Profile • E-mail

A California researcher has entered the acrimonious debate over mobile phones by predicting that banning the use of hand-held phones by U.S. drivers could save thousands of lives each year.

In a study released Monday, Jed Kolko, a fellow at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, estimated that 300 fewer people will die each year in traffic accidents as a result of a pending hand-held cell-phone ban for California drivers. More than 4,000 people die in traffic accidents in the state every year. 

Most of those lives will be saved when the roads are wet or the weather is bad, said Kolko, who came to his conclusions after poring over data from the handful of states that have banned the use of hand-held phones while driving.

Although he prepared no estimate for how many lives would be saved nationwide if hand-held phone use by drivers was banned in all states, Kolko said, “You’d be safe to say several thousand.”

Kolko’s study is sure to fuel two debates that have existed since cell phones became a common companion of drivers in the 1990s: whether phone use by drivers contributes to traffic accidents at all and whether hand-held versions are more distracting and dangerous than hands-free phones.

Previous studies “are all over the map,” Kolko said in his report. “Some find no effect from mobile phone use on collisions, and others find very large effects.” Those studies also relied on surveys of drivers and lab simulations, and did not predict the effects of hands-free laws, he said.

Surveying drivers is particularly problematic, Kolko said.

"Mobile phone use can't be measured accurately at the time of a traffic collision," he said. "A driver may hang up to avoid looking negligent, and police can't easily access mobile phone records."

Kolko’s study used data on mobile phone ownership and fatal wrecks across all 50 states. He then analyzed the effects of hands-free laws where they are in effect — Washington, D.C., New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. ( In addition to California, a hands-free law will go into effect in Washington state July 1.)

No effect in good conditions
“Hands-free laws clearly reduce fatalities in bad weather and on wet roads,” Kolko told msnbc.com. The study concluded that the reduction in such adverse conditions was between 30 and 60 percent, depending on how long the law had been in effect.

To a lesser effect, the laws reduce fatalities during rush hour, he said. “They don’t seem to have an effect on fatalities in good driving conditions.”

For now, Kolko can’t explain the correlation. “It may be that drivers in states with hands-free laws are shifting their talking minutes to when they are not driving,” Kolko wrote in his study. “It could be that drivers find hands-free technology more cumbersome … (or that) the law in itself serves as an educational warning about the danger of talking on the phone while driving … (or) that hands-free technologies do reduce the physical distraction of using a phone, and earlier studies failed to detect this effect.”

MORE FROM WIRELESS

Wireless Section Front

Dump your lover directly on voice mail Cancer center director warns of cell phone risks AT&T introduces global GPS service Sony, Samsung unite on wireless HD District bars teacher-student texting Black market iPhones big in Russia, China Review: iPhone outdoes Instinct Japan gives cautious reception to iPhone Apple sells 1 million iPhones in first 3 days Palm launches new Treo on Sprint network Wireless Section Front   Add Wireless headlines to your news reader: