Bans on Texting While Driving Help Reduce Crash-Related Injuries, Study Shows

Tue, 5/8/2018 - 7:13 pm by Kirsten Rincon

Although there are distracted driving laws in almost all U.S. states, they vary greatly between states in terms of how strict the bans and how tough the penalties are, and in terms of the way they are being enforced. Hand-held cell phone use is still allowed in some states, and there are a few states where texting and driving is not banned. Researchers from the School of Public Health at Texas A&M University have conducted a study to find out whether traffic safety has improved in some of the states that have imposed texting bans, and found that there is a correlation between bans on texting while driving and the number of road traffic injuries.

According to the study, named “The Impact of Texting Bans on Motor Vehicle-Crash Related Hospitalizations”, the bans have a significant contribution for reducing crash-related injuries. Researchers analyzed crash-related hospitalizations in 19 states, comparing the number of hospitalizations before and after the bans were enacted. They took a look at hospital data from 2003 to 2010, and discovered that crash-related hospitalizations declined by 7 percent during that period in the states with texting bans, with a 9-percent drop among drivers aged 22 and older.

Researchers said that the way texting bans are enforced plays an important role in preventing distraction-related accidents. “Our research indicates that adults in states with a primary texting ban stand to benefit the most in terms of potentially avoiding crash-related hospitalizations,” says Alva O. Ferdinand, assistant professor in the School of Public Health at Texas A&M University, one of the researchers who conducted the study.

If a law has primary enforcement, it means that police officers are allowed to pull drivers over and give them a ticket for texting and driving alone, even if the driver hasn’t committed another traffic offense, whereas with a secondary-enforcement ban, a police officer has to notice another traffic offense before they can stop a driver, and then determine whether the driver has been using his/her cell phone. That’s why researchers suggest state that have distracted driving laws with secondary enforcement to change their status to primary enforcement, which would help law enforcement detect and prevent texting while driving more easily. Currently, 5 states have texting bans with secondary enforcement.

This research aims to reveal the effectiveness of various types of texting bans across different states, so that lawmakers can see what types of distracted driving laws help improve traffic safety the most.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), over 3,000 people were killed, in distraction-related accidents in the United States in 2013, while about 424,000 people were injured. Distracted driving has become a serious threat to public safety, so drivers are urged to avoid engaging in any activities that could take their attention away from the road, such as texting, talking on a cell phone, talking to other passengers, eating, drinking, or adjusting a car’s radio.