Have you ever been driving in front of, behind, or beside a person and white knuckling your steering wheel because they’re not just completely obstructing one side of their field of vision with their hand and phone, but they seem to be using animate hand gestures and drinking coffee too? Well, the Washington legislature has finally done something about it.

Governor Chris Gregoire signed into law on Friday a bill that makes it a primary offense to be caught holding a cell phone to your ear while driving, or to be reading, writing or sending text messages.

Beginning in early summer, drivers are advised to use a headset if they’re talking on their cell phones while driving. The new law strengthens the state’s secondary offense law passed last year, which had only penalized drivers with an extra fine if they were pulled over for another infraction. But on June 10, state and local police can immediately pull over someone for everything from not using a headset to texting, which will cost them a $124 ticket.

The sponsor of the measure, Senator Tracey Eide ofFederal Way, said that the public has voiced their opinion and they are sick of distracted drivers. “They want people to get into their cars from point A to point B, and get their safely,” she added.

Under current less stringent law around 1,607 people received tickets for holding a cell phone to their ears, said state patrol Sgt. Freddy Williams, and as many as 230 people were ticketed for texting while driving.

But, though tickets are given to violators there are still a couple of things to consider. One is that there are better cell phone drivers than others. Another is that the statistics may not support the notion that cell phone laws curb car accidents and may in fact just be another stream of income for the city.

Cell Phone Use Studies

A recent study conducted between April 2002 and July 2004 asked subjects who were treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries suffered in auto crashes cell phone use questions related to their accidents. Even though the area of the study had banned hand held cell phones, one third of the study’s subjects reported they were using hand held phones. However, injury crash risk didn’t differ from one type of reported phone use to the other.

The results of the study are consistent with a 1997 study done in Canada that examined cell phone billing records to uncover increased accident risk from cell phone use. That study showed an increase of up to four times the risk of an injury crash. Previous studies relied on simulated driving tests or were very small in scope. These studies were some of the first large scale real world studies conducted relating to the on-the-road consequences of mixing cell phones and steering wheels.

But there have been challenges to this data recently by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) who conducted a cross state study of data collected by insurance companies just in January of this year. According to the study, the crash rates in the nation’s capital were the same as in Virginia and Maryland, which don’t have laws limiting the use of cell phones while driving.

Adrian Lund, president of HLDI, recently told CNN, “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.”

So if the data that cell phone use is correct and that the laws don’t reduce accidents, then what could possible e the cause? One of the options is that drivers in states that ban hand held devices while driving may be resorting to using hands-free devices, but they still are horrible distracted drivers whose accident rates are the same as if the were using hand-held devices.

“In this case, crashes wouldn’t go down because the risk is about the same, regardless of whether the phones are hand-held or hands-free,” the HLDI study said.

Federal Action

The Washington State ban is just playing follow-the-leader on many other bans in states like California and Oregon. But it also follows a federal precedent. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) banned on texting for drivers of commercial vehicles in January, right before the HLDI study. Commercial drivers of large vehicles such as busses or trucks caught texting while driving face a penalty of up to $2,750.

Distracted driving has been somewhat of a crusade launched by NHTSA head Ray LaHood, who has not only been very vocal about his opposition to texting, but other forms of distracted driving.

“It makes me crazy when I see people in Washington with a phone up to their ear and a can of soda on their lap thinking that they can do these things. They just simply can’t. It does drive me a little crazy,” He told US News and World Report. “We are hooked on these machines. It’s somewhat like an addiction to tobacco or alcohol.”

Personal Injury and Distracted Driving

Texting is a whole different animal and studies are struggling to keep up with data related to accidents caused by texting. It generally requires heightened attention to the device and in some cases both hands to communicate resulting in drivers driving with their knees and not paying attention to the road at the same time.

There is not dispute that this new trend of distracted driving is causing accidents, but the revelation that it’s conversation in the car rather than how the device is used changes things. Car companies are now filling their cars with all kinds of distracting devices to sell cars. These bells-and-whistles could, in fact, be putting driver and their passengers in jeopardy.

Please don’t drive distracted. It is especially important now that you stay alert to other drivers who have everything from internet surfing onboard computers to DVD players to distract them. If you or a loved one sustain a personal injury from a distracted driving accident then it is important that you find legal council that is up to date on new laws set in place to protect your interests. Call Phillips Webster for a consultation into your legal options.

Learn More About:

• Types of Accidents Distracted Driving Can Cause
• Types of Injuries in a Distracted Driving Accident
• Distracted Truck Drivers and Insurance