And in order to combat this, they are recommending a nationwide ban on cellphone use while driving. This would include text messaging (which is already banned in many states), standard phone calls, and any other activity non-required of drivers like Facebook and Twitter updates. The NTSB was vague when it came to things like maps and GPS use on cellphones. The recommended ban also includes hands-free devices, unless they are part of a factory-installed system.

In a statement, NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman quoted some National Highway Traffic Safety Administration figures like ‘at any given moment, 13.5 million drivers are talking on cell phones’ and ’3,092 deaths on the roads last year were attributed to distracted drivers.’

Of course, this is just a suggestion at this point. But the NTSB is pretty influential in enacting legislative changes.

“No call, no text, no update, is worth a human life,” Hersman said. “It is time for all of us to stand up for safety by turning off electronic devices when driving.”

Right now, only 9 U.S. states prohibit the use of hand-held devices to makes calls while driving. Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands also have bans. No state or territory has an all-encompassing phone ban that includes hands-free devices as well. 35 states ban text messaging while driving, and 32 of those states have primary enforcement (drivers can be pulled over for that singular offense).

CTIA – The Wireless Association issued a release standing behind the recommendation, although saying that they defer to state and local lawmakers on the issue:

CTIA and the wireless industry agree that when drivers are behind the wheel, safety should be their number one priority. Manual texting while driving is clearly incompatible with safety, which is why we have historically supported a ban on texting while driving. As far as talking on wireless devices while driving, we defer to state and local lawmakers and their constituents as to what they believe are the most appropriate laws where they live.

A Carnegie Mellon University neuroscientist who studies the issue at hand has also released a statement in support of the ban:

Banning the use of cell phones by drivers in non-emergency situations could be another dramatic step forward in further reducing the unacceptably high levels of driving-related fatalities in the U.S., which is most recently at about 33,000 people killed annually,” Just said. “While recent improvements in automobile safety equipment have made an enormous contribution, it remains to make improvements in the most important factor, driver performance, and to save thousands of additional lives per year. We are our own worst enemy.

This whole thing is sure to spur debates about governmental regulation, and whether the ban would go a little too far. There’s no doubt that talking on a cell phone can distract a driver. But what’s next? A nationwide ban on smoking while driving or eating fries while driving? All I can say is if this thing somehow goes though – good luck with enforcement. And even if the enforcement logistics work out, I’d still say good luck getting people to stop making calls in their cars.

In fact, such bans are associated with a slight increase in the frequency of insurance claims filed under collision coverage for damage to vehicles in crashes. This finding is based on comparisons of claims in 4 states before and after texting ban, compared with patterns of claims in nearby states.

HLDI researchers calculated rates of collision claims for vehicles up to 9 years old during the months immediately before and after driver texting was banned in California (January 2009), Louisiana (July 2008), Minnesota (August 2008), and Washington (January 2008).

“Texting bans haven’t reduced crashes at all. In a perverse twist, crashes increased in 3 of the 4 states we studied after bans were enacted,” said Adrian Lund, president of both HLDI and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. 

“It’s an indication that texting bans might even increase the risk of texting for drivers who continue to do so despite the laws."

 Month-to-month fluctuations in the rates of collision claims in HLDI’s 4 study states with texting bans for all drivers didn’t change much from before to after the bans were enacted. Neither did the patterns differ much from those in nearby states that didn’t ban texting for all drivers during the study period. To the extent that the crash patterns did change in the study states, they went up, not down, after the bans took effect. Increases varied from 1 percent more crashes in Washington to about 9 percent more in Minnesota.

Not surprisingly, young drivers are more likely than older people to text while driving. In all 4 of the study states, crashes increased among drivers younger than 25 after the all-driver bans took effect. In California, Louisiana, and Washington, the increases for young drivers were greater than for drivers 25 and older. The largest crash increase of all (12 percent) following enactment of a texting ban was among young drivers in California.

Noncompliance is a likely reason texting bans aren’t reducing crashes. Survey results indicate that many drivers, especially younger ones, shrug off these bans. Among 18-24 year-olds, the group most likely to text, 45 percent reported doing so anyway in states that bar all drivers from texting. This is just shy of the 48 percent of drivers who reported texting in states without bans. Many respondents who knew it was illegal to text said they didn’t think police were strongly enforcing the bans.

"But this doesn’t explain why crashes increased after texting bans," Lund points out.

"If drivers were disregarding the bans, then the crash patterns should have remained steady. So clearly drivers did respond to the bans somehow, and what they might have been doing was moving their phones down and out of sight when they texted, in recognition that what they were doing was illegal. This could exacerbate the risk of texting by taking drivers’ eyes further from the road and for a longer time."
 

Among 14-17 years olds who intend to have or already have a driver’s license, the survey found 36 percent strongly agree that if they regulary text and drive it could lead to a fatality. In contrast, more than half (55%) of teens strongly agree that drinking while driving could be fatal.

The survey also showed that teens think the chances of getting into an accident are still higher when drinking while driving versus texting while driving. In the survey, of these same teens, 63 percent strongly agree they could get into an accident if they text and drive. This compares with 78 percent who strongly agree they could get into an accident if they drink and drive.

"Some teens still think the consequences of reaching for a cell phone are less severe than reaching for a beer bottle," said Laurette Stiles, vice president of Strategic Resources at State Farm.

"We have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to helping teens understand that texting while driving can be every bit as dangerous as drinking while driving. It’s an awareness gap that must be addressed."

Among teens that have never texted while driving, 73 percent strongly agree they will get into an accident if they text and drive. Yet among teens that admit to texting while driving, only 52 percent strongly agree they will get into an accident as a result of the practice.

Current teen drivers also think their chances of narrowly avoiding an accident are better texting while driving versus drinking while driving. With texting while driving, 55 percent of these teens agree they will have some situations when they almost get into an accident but will recover just in time. This compares to 36 percent of these teens who agree they can recover just in time in situations where they are drinking and driving.

The "Steer Clear" application is part of State Farm’s safe drivers discount program. The app gives young drivers a way to complete the Steer Clear discount program and encourages supervised driver education.

State Farm says its Steer Clear program aligns with the principles of Graduated Driver Licensing laws aimed at reducing teen car crashes by lengthening the time teens must drive while supervised and requiring practice in a number of driving conditions.

The app allows parents and teen drivers to take advantage of State Farm’s Steer Clear car insurance discount, which requires teens under the age of 19 to complete 20 guided trips behind the wheel. The Steer Clear app provides a trip timer to log suggested outings and it will track practice time while the mobile device is turned off.

"Parents have told us they need more information about guiding their teen through the learning to drive process," said Laurette Stiles, Vice President, Strategic Resources at State Farm.

"This new application provides trip suggestions, goals and pointers for assessing driving skills. By providing this tool State Farm hopes to support supervised practice and improve teens’ skills for independent driving."

The Steer Clear iPhone and iPod touch application also includes driving tips, a safe driving pledge and informational videos. If the program is successfully completed participants can receive up to a 15 percent discount on car insurance.

HLDI researchers calculated monthly collision claims per 100 insured vehicle years for vehicles up to 3 years old during the months immediately before and after hand-held phone use was banned while driving in New York, the District of Columbia, Connecticut and California.

Month-to month changes in rates of collision claims in places with bans did not change from before or after the laws went into effect.

"The laws aren’t reducing crashes, even though we know that such laws have reduced hand-held phone use, and several studies have established that phoning while driving increases crash risk," says Adrian Lund, president of both the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and HLDI.

In New York the HLDI researchers did find a decrease in collision claim frequencies, relative to comparison states, but this decreasing trend began well before the state’s ban on hand-held phoning while driving and actually paused briefly when the ban took effect. Trends in the District of Columbia, Connecticut, and California didn’t change.

"So the new findings don’t match what we already know about the risk of phoning and texting while driving," Lund points out.

"If crash risk increases with phone use and fewer drivers use phones where it’s illegal to do so, we would expect to see a decrease in crashes. But we aren’t seeing it. Nor do we see collision claim increases before the phone bans took effect. This is surprising, too, given what we know about the growing use of cellphones and the risk of phoning while driving. We’re currently gathering data to figure out this mismatch."
 

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The group will be led by Jennifer Smith, who has been an advocate against distracted driving since her mother was killed by someone talking on a cell phone while driving in 2008.

Focusdriven is a result of a September 2009 national Distracted Driving Summit in Washington, DC. Since the two-day meeting that brought together affected families, law enforcement, researchers and public officials, family members of distracted driving victims have worked to create an advocacy organization with support from the Department of Transportation and the National Safety Council.

FocusDriven’s website has information on distracted driving, help for victims and family members, and ways to get involved.

"I first met several of the founding members of FocusDriven at our Distracted Driving Summit, and I’m deeply impressed by their commitment to turn these tragic events into positive actions that will help save lives," said Secretary LaHood. "Their stories are not just heartbreaking; they’re also a clear and compelling call to action."

FocusDriven is modeled after Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), which helped to change society’s attitudes about drinking and driving
 

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Researchers Frank Drews and colleagues found evidence that attention patterns differ for drivers who text versus those who talk on a cell phone. For those who talk on a cell phone, researchers say, "drivers apparently attempt to divide attention between a phone conversation and driving, adjusting the processing priority of the two activities depending on task demands."

Texting requires drivers to switch their attention from one task to the other. When attention switching happens as drivers write, read, or receive a text, their overall reaction times are substantially slower than when they are talking on a cell phone. The type of texting makes a difference, with reading messages affecting braking time more than writing them.

To find why and how much drivers are impaired during texting, the Utah researchers selected 20 men and 20 women between the ages of 19 and 23 both in single task (straight driving) and a dual task (driving and texting) in a high fidelity simulator. The participants were experienced texters with an average of nearly 5 years driving experience, they received and sent messages while the researchers monitored their brake onset time, following distance, lane maintenance, and collisions.

The crash risk due to texting is substantial. One explanation is drivers who text tend to decrease their minimum following distance and also experience delayed reaction time. It took drivers in the study an average of 30 percent longer to react when they were texting and 9 percent longer when they talked on a cell phone, compared with driving only.
 

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Janet Froetscher
President & CEO
National Safety Council

"Studies show that driving while talking on a cell phone is extremely dangerous and puts drivers at a four times greater risk of a crash," said Janet Froetscher, president and CEO of the NSC. "Driving drunk is also dangerous and against the law. When our friends have been drinking, we take the car keys away. It’s time to take the cell phone away."

A study from the Harvard Center of Risk Analysis estimates that cell phone use while driving contributes to 6 percent of crashes, which is about 636,000 crashes, 330,000 injuries, 12,000 serious injuries and 2,600 deaths per year. It also says the annual financial toll of cell phone-related crashes is $43 billion.

The NSC also points to studies from researchers at the University of Utah that show hands-free devices do not make cell phone calls while driving safe.

"When you’re on a call, even if both hands are on the wheel, your head is in the call, and not on your driving," Froetscher said. "Unlike the passenger sitting next to you, the person on the other end of the call is oblivious to your driving conditions. The passenger provides another pair of eyes on the road."

Many business have adopted polices that ban cell phone use by employees while driving. Among NSC member businesses that responded to a survey, 45 percent said they have company polices prohibiting on-road cell phone use. Of those 85 percent said the polices do not affect business productivity.

"Anyone with a busy job knows the temptation to multi-task and stay in touch with the office while driving," Froetscher said. "Believe me, I’ve been there. I didn’t realize how much risk I was taking. Most people don’t. Employers understand how dangerous the behavior is and their potential liability. We are asking all businesses to join us by adopting policies banning calling and texting while driving on the job."

Froetscher is sending letter this week to all governors and state legislative leaders, pressing them to adopt statewide bans.  She admits that enforcing bans in all states will be a challenge, but noted the NCS was successful in implementing seatbelt enforcement.

"The change we are looking for, to stop cell phone use while driving, won’t happen overnight. There will be a day, however, when we look back and wonder how we could have been so reckless with our cell phones and texting devices," Froetscher said.

The study used a sophisticated driving simulator and found that when drivers talk on a cell phone, they drift out of their lanes, and miss exists more frequently than drivers talking with a passenger.

The findings were released today by the American Psychological Association and published in the December 15 issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.

"The passenger adds a second set of eyes, and helps the driver navigate and reminds them where to go," said Strayer.

Earlier studies by Strayer and Drews have found that hands-free cell phones are just as distracting as handheld models because the conversation is the biggest distraction. They have also revealed that when young adults talk on cell phones while driving, their reaction times become as slow as reaction times for senior citizens, and that drivers talking on cell phones are as impaired as drivers with 0.08 percent blood alcohol level that is considered drunk driving in most states.

"When you take a look at the data, it turns out that a driver conversing with a passenger is not as impaired a driver talking on a cell phone," said Strayer. "You see bigger lane deviations for someone talking on a cell phone compared with a driver talking to a passenger."

"The difference between a cell phone conversation and passenger conversation is due to the fact that the passenger is in the vehicle and knows what the traffic conditions are like, and they help the diver by reminding them of where to take an exit and pointing out hazards."
 

Virginia’s General Assembly is proposing legislation that would prohibit texting while driving an electric wheelchair, riding a bicycle, motorcycle and a moped.

"Obviously, text messaging is a huge distraction. No one could dispute that," Janet Brooking executive director of Drive Smart Virginia, a statewide nonprofit advocacy group told the Washington Post. "We could save a lot of lives with these bills."

The penalty for driving while texting would be a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $250 and court costs. Dana Schrad, executive director of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, said it would be a challenge to enforce the law because it’s difficult to look into moving cars. She did say they would look for other problems such as weaving or slowing down.

A year ago Virginia legislators made it illegal for anyone under 18 to talk, send text messages or snap photos with a cell phone while driving, but they will only be ticketed if they are stopped for another offense.

Joe Farren, spokesman for the CTIA-The Wireless Association said his organization supports the ban. "We don’t think anyone should text message while driving," he said. "We don’t have a problem with that."