A recent study from the Public Policy Institute of California is asserting that hands-free cellphone laws, such as the one taking effect in California on July 1st, will save 300 lives per year.

Based on data from municipalities, including the California Highway Patrol, this statistic is not an entirely accurate picture of possible or future road safety. Currently the results from the report above include guess-timates, based on information collected from accidents and mobile phone users, in states that have had the hands-free cell phone laws in effect for some time, such as Connecticut and New York.

Will hands-free phone laws make our roads safer?

According to Joe Kolko, who conducted the cell phone and accident study from PPIC, the answer is yes.

Kolko discovered that traffic deaths during bad weather fell 52 percent within six months of the laws’ taking effect. Fatalities on wet roads dropped 38 percent and rush-hour deaths fell 17 percent.

Data from New York, which enacted the nation’s first hands-free law in 2001, suggests the pattern holds up over the long haul. Four years after the law passed, traffic fatalities during lousy weather or on wet roads were down about 64 percent. Kolko assumed California would see similar declines and applied those figures to the number traffic fatalities in adverse conditions to arrive at 300 lives saved per year.

Clearly his guess-timates paint a picture of increased road safety.

But many questions remain such as, will drivers en masse adhere to these new laws? Should drivers be told by the government when and how to use their cell phones? When will better reporting take place to accurately record whether a cell phone triggered an accident?

I’m sure as time passes, all 50 states will have passed similar laws, and drivers will not be allowed to drive while on their cell phones. I especially feel that TWD (texting while driving) is a far more dangerous activity performed behind the wheel. Essentially while a driver is on a call, be it on a hands free device or not, distraction can and does occur, which brings me to my reader question.

Reader Question

Do you think that hands free devices will make for greater road safety?

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Filed Under: Autos

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