Cell phones and driving: More than laws, we'll need shame to halt this peril

From Oregon Live:

by Elizabeth Hovde, guest columnist

Saturday August 01, 2009, 6:23 AM

If someone told you talking on your cell phone while driving might be as dangerous as drunken driving, would it compel you to stop?

Well, we've been told. And so far, I've seen no shortage of in-car gabbers out and about in Portland.

I love making calls in the car (and do so with my hands-free device). It allows me to return social calls, to make appointments I've neglected to schedule and so on. But it's time to stop. The research is too compelling. And I certainly wouldn't climb in my car and drive drunk.

With cell phone use soaring and near-daily stories about the serious risks of phoning while driving, it will be interesting to see how society responds. Surveys show that people who use their phones in the car consider themselves safe drivers, even though they rightly identify cell phone use as one of the most dangerous driving activities out there.

Here are some highlights from various studies, in case you missed the research:

In a study originally suppressed by the federal government but recently made public, highway safety researchers estimated that cell phone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents in 2002. The estimates are based on the assumption that 6percent of drivers were talking on the phone at a given time. That figure is higher today.

A 2003 Harvard study estimated that cell phone distractions caused 2,600 traffic deaths each year and 330,000 accidents resulting in serious injury.

A University of Utah study found that motorists talking on a phone are four times as likely to crash as other drivers, and are as likely to cause an accident as someone with a 0.08 blood alcohol content.

A survey last year by Nationwide Mutual Insurance found that 81 percent of cell phone owners acknowledged talking on phones while driving, and 98 percent considered themselves safe drivers. But 45 percent said they had been hit or nearly hit by a driver talking on a phone.

A study released last week by Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that the risk of collision rises 23 times for drivers who text.

No state bans hands-free cell phones while driving. Several, including Oregon beginning Jan.1, ban hand-held phones and texting.

The Oregon law met a lot of resistance. People rightly charge that other in-car activities are a distraction and that reckless driving laws are sufficient to punish the distracted. While it's true that other activities -- eating a burger, fumbling for a CD and so on -- are distracting, research shows that phone use is even worse.

In any case, what we need more than laws banning cell phone use in the car are people willing to shame us away from the activity.

Mothers Against Drunk Drivers and Oprah have done more to prevent drinking and driving than blood-alcohol limits have. People have parties with a bowl for keys and a sober person in charge of giving the keys back at the end of the night. Last week, I got an invitation to a barbecue reminding guests to appoint a designated driver or be ready to call a cab.

Driving drunk is not socially acceptable. But driving attached to your cell phone is. Can you imagine calling a friend from your car and having her tell you she won't talk to you while you're driving?

We have enough compelling research. Now we need a Mothers Against Distracted Driving to set us straight and remind us of all the loved ones whose lives have been lost because a driver felt his right to phone a buddy was more important than paying attention to the road.

No one has to talk on the phone while driving, even though it's horribly convenient. Drunken driving is more convenient than a cab or a sleepover, too.

Elizabeth Hovde writes a Sunday column for The Oregonian and also posts during the week on oregonlive.com/thestump. Reach her at ehovde@earthlink.net.