Drivers not getting text message: study

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Manitoba’s ban on texting and talking on hand-held cellphones while driving might actually be making streets more dangerous, according to a new report released Tuesday.

A study in the United States found that rather than complying with similar laws, many drivers — particularly younger drivers — are lowering their phones below the windows to avoid police detection.

And that’s keeping their eyes off the road.

The controversial study was done by the U.S.-based Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) and reviewed crash data of four states before and after texting bans came into force.

It found that the ban did not reduce collisions in those states. Worse, it said crash insurance claims actually increased.

“If drivers were disregarding the bans, then the crash patterns should have remained steady,” HLDI president Adrian Lund said in a statement. “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.”

The HLDI report also found that young motorists are more likely than older drivers to text behind the wheel. In all four states, crashes increased among drivers younger than 25 after the bans took effect.

The HLDI is an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which is based in Arlington, Va.

Manitoba is one of eight provincies and 30 states that ban texting and hand-held cellphone use while driving.

Lund said despite finding no reduction in crashes, it doesn’t mean it’s safe to text and drive.

“There’s a crash risk associated with doing this. It’s just that bans aren’t reducing this crash risk.”

Manitoba’s ban came into effect July 15, but police admit it’s had little impact on curbing the practice of talking on a hand-held phone or texting while driving.

Winnipeg police plan to launch a renewed enforcement campaign next month.

Staff-Sgt. Mark Hodgson, who heads the police service’s central traffic unit, said the toughest demographic to address are drivers under 25 who’ve grown up with a cellphone, Blackberry or iPhone, and can’t imagine ignoring it when driving.

“They’re wired differently. Their overwhelming consideration when driving is to be in constant communication with their peers,” Hodgson said.

Robert Tremblay, director of research for the Insurance Bureau of Canada, said for a ban to actually reduce crashes due to distracted driving, society has to make cellphone use while driving socially unacceptable in the same way driving without a seat belt fastened is unacceptable.

“It takes more than legislation to change driver behavior,” he said in a TV report in response to the HLDI study. “We as a society have to accept the fact we have to change our behavior behind the wheel.”

Police and Manitoba Public Insurance, like in many other jurisdictions, do not have data directly relating texting to crashes. Collisions are mostly self-reported and drivers generally do not admit they were texting or on a cellphone at the time of the crash.

But MPI also says distracted driving contributes to 80 per cent of all collisions and hand-held cellphones are now the No.1 driver distraction. Driver inattention increases when texting; drivers are 23 times more likely to get into a crash than if they switched off the device.

Hodgson added age plays a big part. He said young drivers, the most common to text and drive, have little life experience and think they’re invulnerable, so they take chances behind the wheel with their phones.

“I think this is an important issue we have to draw the line in the sand on,” Hodsgon said.

 

– With files from the wire service

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca