California's cell-phone ban for drivers pays big safety dividends

Study says traffic fatalities dropped 22 percent in first two years of ban, and fatalities where cell phones were a factor dropped 47 percent.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/california-cellphone-ban_n_1322726.html

I figure these numbers continue to drop as people get more used to the law and less resistant of it. Personally, I find texting to be far more dangerous than talking, but it really has cleared my mind and made me a better driver to do neither.

 

Punish violators the same as DUI offenders. Then we will see dividends being paid.

 

It's not just common sense, it's just easier. I hate having to hold the cell phone on speaker v. using bluetooth.

 

Damn government regulations.

 

Your meat inspections steal my freedom!

 

Oh, yes, I am sure that is the only variable in why fatalities from traffic accidents are dropping - especially since fatalities have been dropping for years and years even though people have used cell phones and whatnot for the past ten years than they ever have......

Yes, this study I am sure was legitimate and not skewed. :

 

The money part of the entire article, though, is that the number of deaths from cell phone use dropped from 100 to 53 and that's where they come up with the 47 percent numbers.

So in short, in the entire state of California, with, what two or three million cars on the road every day, there were 100 drivers killed in a given year due to cell phone usage.

Yes, clearly that number merits the kind of outrage and hysteria that have brought us to a place where these laws are necessary.......

 

Two or three million cars on the road every day, and there were probably only a few thousand, if that, killed by drunk drivers. Let's make that legal too.

 

The only "outrage and hysteria" I see is usually just from the poster with the angry green sig.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year

From 1996 through 2007, fatalities in all of the U.S. did indeed drop, but never by more than 2 or 3 percent in a year, and in some years fatalities actually increased.

Then in 2008, fatalities decreased by 11 percent, and in 2009 fatalities decreased by 9.7 percent.

2008 ... something happened that year in many states regarding a new law that was passed ... what was it about anyway?

 

Good to see that the law is working.

 

The law about no texting is a no-brainer.