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 On average, states saw 1,632 fewer traffic-related emergency room
visits per year after implementing a texting ban, the new study
found.
Nationwide in 2016, almost 3,500 people died and another 391,000
people were seriously injured in crashes involving distracted
drivers, researchers note in the American Journal of Public Health.
Some previous research suggests that laws limiting mobile phone use
to hands-free activities can help reduce distractions and crashes.
But it's still unclear how texting bans might impact the chance of
minor road injuries that only require emergency room treatment, not
a hospital admission.
For the current study, researchers examined data on these
less-serious crash-related injuries treated in emergency rooms
between 2007 and 2014 in 16 U.S. states: Arizona, Arkansas,
California, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey,
New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont,
Washington and Wisconsin. Every state but Arizona passed a texting-while-driving
ban at some point during the study period.
In states with a texting ban, the study found an average 4 percent
annual reduction in emergency room visits for motor vehicle crash
injuries compared to before the ban.
"While new laws that are aimed at curbing distracted driving may
seem overbearing, they have been shown to reduce detrimental roadway
outcomes that lead to the prevention of death, serious injuries, and
minor injuries following a car crash," said lead study author Alva
Ferdinand of Texas A&M University School of Public Health in College
Station.
"Given the fact that a driver's decision to text while driving can
not only impact him or her, but passengers in his/her car, drivers
and passengers in other cars, and pedestrians, the evidence suggests
that adherence to these laws can be beneficial," Ferdinand said by
email.
The study wasn't designed to prove whether or how texting bans might
have altered behaviors that lead to crashes. Researchers also lacked
data on how many crash-related emergency room visits involved
drivers who had been texting.
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Still, "it is crystal clear from research in cars outfitted with
internal cameras that taking one's eyes off the road to engage with
a phone drastically increases the risk of a crash," said Dr. M. Kit
Delgado of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of
Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
"Therefore, aggressively promoting and enforcing a ban on all
handheld phone use makes sense," Delgado, who wasn't involved in the
study, said by email.
Not all texting bans target all drivers, and enforcement approaches
vary. Road safety also depends on a host of other policies on things
like seatbelt use and age restrictions for new drivers, he noted.
States with so-called primary enforcement bans on texting - which
permit law enforcement officers to pull over drivers when their only
traffic violation appears to be operating a phone - saw an 8 percent
reduction in crash-related emergency room visits after the laws took
effect, the study found.
By contrast, secondary enforcement texting bans only allow officers
to issue tickets for texting if they pull drivers over for some
other violation. States with secondary enforcement bans targeting
only young, novice drivers saw a 40 percent reduction in
crash-related emergency room visits after these laws took effect.
Ideally, drivers should do things like set GPS routes on their
phones before they leave the driveway and avoid texting or any other
activities that require handling the phone while on the road, said
Despina Stavrinos, a researcher at the University of Alabama at
Birmingham who wasn't involved in the study.
"Of course, there are other distractions besides cell phones such as
other passengers, eating, grooming, etc.," Stavrinos said by email.
"Drivers are encouraged to keep their mind on what they are supposed
to be doing - driving."
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2HDa9B1 American Journal of Public Health,
online March 21, 2019.
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