On July 1, the hands-free cellphone law of California will take effect. According to Public Policy Institute of California, it will save one life a day. Truly, it is an astounding statistics. California Highway Patrol’s data even add to its oddity showing that chatting on cellphones is a factor in just six lethal accidents in 2006. Joe Kolko, who made the study, declared that the problem lies with the data of CHP because numbers of cellphone-related traffic accidents are hideously under-reported.
The said California law will prohibit drivers from keeping themselves free-handed when driving, forbidding the use of cellphones. 300 lives per year can be saved of that said law. But how does Kolko arrived to such figure?
Data on mobile-phone ownership and traffic facilities for all states were gathered by Kolko and then studied the effects of hands-free laws in the states of New York, Connecticut, District of Columbia, and New Jersey where the same law is in effect. His studies show that traffic deaths during bad weather drop 52% within six months, fatalities on wet roads fell 38%, and rush hour deaths decreased 17%.
Kolko hopes that California would experience similar declines and applied those statistics to the number traffic facilities in adverse conditions to reach the 300 lives saved per year. His study is better than the data of CHP which shows that no more then eight cellphone-related traffic fatalities per year between 2004 and 2006, Kolko added. He also admitted that crashes caused by those chatting on the phone are underreported since it is tough to verify.
There are numerous studies done which show varied results. Some found out that mobile-phone use doe not affect the collisions while there are some that concluded that mobile-phone use has large impact. Further, there are other studies which said that talking on a phone is much more risky than the figures presented by CHP or the PPIC, in spite of whether the driver is using his hands or not.
Sen. Joe Simitian is the author of California’s law. It took him six years to pass it considering the interference of cell phone industry.
Like what I said in my previous post regarding this matter, using cellphones is not the sole cause of traffic accidents, there are many. How about those who eat or those make their monkey businesses behind the wheels?
