Hand-held cellphone ban for motorists now the law

It's official. It's midnight, and drivers in both California and Washington state are no longer allowed to hold cellphones to their ears and talk.

I posted yesterday about some of the studies that have been done measuring how talking on cellphones impacts driving, and the results have been mixed. It certainly seems logical that having two hands on the wheel will improve most people's driving skills. But the really big question is whether there will be fewer serious accidents as a result of California's new law.

One way to try to measure it is to look at data from the federal government's fatality analysis reporting system and see what's happened to the rate of fatal accidents since some states have enacted their hands-free laws.

Unfortunately, that's not very telling. Connecticut's hand-held ban began in late 2005. In 2005, the fatality rate (the number of fatalities per hundred million miles driven by motorists in the state) was .88 in Connecticut. In 2006, it rose to .95. Data for 2007 isn't yet available.

New Jersey's hands-free law went into effect in March of this year. So, again, it's too early to tell.

The District of Columbia's law began in mid-2004. The district's fatality rate going back to 1998:

1998: 1.63
1999: 1.18
2000: 1.37
2001: 1.81
2002: 1.33
2003: 1.87
2004: 1.15 (law went into effect July 1)
2005: 1.29
2006: 1.02

The number has been trending downward, but it was pretty low in at least two years prior to D.C.'s ban.

The state of New York was the first to enact a hands-free law, which went into effect in November 2001. The state's fatality rate since 1998:

1998: 1.23
1999: 1.26
2000: 1.13
2001: 1.20 (law went into effect Nov. 1)
2002: 1.15
2003: 1.11
2004: 1.08
2005: 1.04
2006: 1.03

Those are certainly interesting numbers, showing a downward trend in the fatality rate.

Again, though, experts believe accidents have many contributing factors, including weather and safety features on vehicles. None of this is to say that cellphone laws are useless or poorly aimed -- I'm guessing many people believe that one life saved is enough.

But the true story of the laws' impact here in California and elsewhere may not be known for several years.

--Steve Hymon