Talking and Texting Can Be Deadly

While states and municipalities are enacting laws that mandate hands-free cell phone operation under the guise that it’s inherently safer than talking while holding the unit to one’s ear, the results of a recent study prove this to be a false assumption.

According to the Itasca, Ill.-based National Safety Council, talking on the phone while driving is a dangerous distraction no matter how the calls are conducted. A study just published in the NSC’s Journal of Safety Research indicates that motorists using either hands-free or hand-held cell phones are equally likely to be involved in four times more crashes than non-conversant drivers.

Distracted drivers talking on their cell phones cause more than 636,000 crashes, 330,000 injuries, 12,000 serious injuries and 2,600 deaths each year in the U.S., says the NSC. A Nationwide Insurance public opinion poll found that a whopping 81 percent of the public admitted to talking on a cell phone while driving.

Currently no state completely bans all types of cell phone use (handheld and hands-free) for all drivers.

Another potentially fatal behind-the-wheel behavior is text messaging. An 18-month study conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute concluded that the risk of a driver getting into a collision is a staggering 23 times greater when he or she is texting. Researchers found that motorists generally spend close to five seconds looking at their phones (instead of the road) while entering text messages, which is enough time to inattentively cover a full 100 yards at highway speeds.

A full trillion text messages were sent by U.S. cell phone users last year, says the industry’s trade group CTIA, which is up exponentially from 14.4 million e-missives in 2000. Currently, 14 states prohibit texting while driving, with the U.S. Senate currently considering a bill to ban the behavior on a national level.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 80 percent of automobile crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involve driver distraction.