http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/study-finds-that-reduced-phone-use-does-not-cut-crashes/

Laws banning cellphone use while driving apparently haven’t reduced crashes, according to a study released on Friday that compared the number of total crashes before the ban with the number after. The study found virtually no difference in the numbers, a finding that had the researchers scratching their heads.

“We were very surprised,” said Adrian Lund, the president of the Highway Loss Data Institute that conducted the study and an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The thought was, of course that if law were passed that decreased cellphone use, then there should be fewer crashes. But that was not the case.


I love this next line.

“You know that there should be fewer,” he said. “We were looking for that, and we aren’t seeing that pattern,” said Mr. Lund, who is also the insurance institute’s president.

They've come for our teens, our cell phones and PDAs and yet their data has not yielded the desired results. Clearly the solution will be to go after something else like eating or music or crying babies???

“We still don’t think we understand this fully,” said Mr. Lund. But one possibility is that while cellphones are a distraction, maybe they are not “all that much worse a distraction than many of the other things that we do.”

“Our real problem is to do something about the bigger problem of distracted driving, whether that’s cellphones, whether that’s the baby crying in the back seat, whether it’s the CD you dropped on the floor, whatever it is.”

What direction do you think we'll take now that we have data suggesting these behavior control laws do not accomplish their goals? Repeal or new restrictions? ;)

As always, with any study I cite I always include my two favorites as a self imposed disclaimer.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7915
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118972683557627104.html