Everyone, it seems, has an anecdote or two about encountering an out-of-control driver yakking away on a cell phone. Common sense tells us this is dangerous, and yet there is little real data to support the claim.
Which makes passing laws against it a bit problematic.
State Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, has said she will introduce a bill making it illegal in Utah for teenager drivers to use cell phones while behind the wheel. Like many others, she has a lot of anecdotes about watching teenagers zip around the streets with a phone at the ear and very little thought to the world around them. She also comes armed with unassailable statistics showing that teenage drivers cause more automobile accidents than people in any other age group.
But it's hard to draw a definitive conclusion that cell-phone use is more dangerous for teenage drivers than it is for older folks. We imagine just about anything associated with driving is more dangerous for teens. But plenty of folks have anecdotes about talkative business executives wandering in oblivion down the highway or harried mothers speeding through school zones while carrying on animated discussions with folks unseen. The only age group that seems less inclined to phone and drive are senior citizens, and yet they have issues of their own behind the wheel.
Humans, it seems, are seldom content to simply drive. They seek distractions the way toddlers seek attention. Mankind may not be capable of devising a law that will change this.
Here's some of the evidence that has emerged in recent years:
A Harvard study found that between 2,000 and 3,000 people are killed and 300,000 injured each year because they are using cell phones while driving. Put another way, this means that for every million motorists out there, 13 deaths are caused by cell-phone use. For comparison purposes, 49 are caused by a failure to use seat belts.
Studies at the University of Utah have shown that cell-phone use is indeed more dangerous than listening to books on tape or singing along with the radio. Researchers also drew the startling conclusion that the danger does not go away when people use hands-free devices that allow them to keep both hands on the wheel.
A University of North Carolina study found cell-phone users more likely to be involved in rear-end collisions but less likely than others to be in fatal or serious injury accidents.
The American Automobile Association's Foundation for Traffic Safety researched all driver distractions and ranked cell-phone usage seventh on the danger list. The most dangerous thing was reaching or leaning, such as to change a radio station or to find the french fry that fell to the floor. Eating and drinking, reading and writing, grooming, smoking and dealing with passengers were also on the list.
Confusing, isn't it?
More than a year ago, police in Utah and elsewhere were to begin tracking the number of accidents in which cell phones played a part. Whatever happened to this? These statistics could provide the conclusive proof lawmakers need.
For the moment, however, lawmakers can be justified for drawing the conclusion that drivers are more dangerous when they're on the phone. But they don't have much of a case that teens should be singled out for punishment, nor that phones are much worse than many other hazards behind the wheel.