Oahu Cell Phone Ban

[4/23/09] Members of the City Council who were around in 2002, the last time an attempt was made to ban cell-phone use while driving, recall a vastly different atmosphere.

"The lobbyists from the phone companies descended on us and lots of folks came in to voice their disapproval," Councilman Duke Bainum recalled yesterday. "It didn't even get out of committee."

But now, he added, "Many accidents and, unfortunately, lives later, we're at a point where the environment is completely different."

That was evident yesterday as the Council gave final approval to Bill 4, a measure to ban talking on a cell phone while driving unless a hands-free device is used.

[5/7/09] Starting July 1, Honolulu motorists will not be allowed to use hand-held cell phones and other electronic devices while driving, under a bill signed by Mayor Mufi Hannemann today.

[6/26/09, posted 7/7] New rules of the road

[6/29/09] It's about time for such a requirement, inadequate as it might be. More than 40 countries have such a law, along with four states and numerous municipalities. Twelve years have passed since a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine found that the risk of an accident while the driver is on a cell phone quadruples, about the same risk as driving drunk.

Not that a Bluetooth headset is any safer. Nearly eight years have passed since researchers at the University of Utah completed a study finding that hands-free phones are as distracting for motorists as hand-held cell phones.

[7/19/00] Extensive research shows the dangers of distracted driving. Studies say that drivers using phones are four times as likely to cause a crash as other drivers, and the likelihood that they will crash is equal to that of someone with a .08 percent blood alcohol level, the point at which drivers are generally considered intoxicated. Research also shows that hands-free devices do not eliminate the risks, and may worsen them by suggesting that the behavior is safe.

A 2003 Harvard study estimated that cellphone distractions caused 2,600 traffic deaths every year, and 330,000 accidents that result in moderate or severe injuries.

Yet Americans have largely ignored that research. Instead, they increasingly use phones, navigation devices and even laptops to turn their cars into mobile offices, chat rooms and entertainment centers, making roads more dangerous.

[7/22/09] In 2003, researchers at a federal agency proposed a long-term study of 10,000 drivers to assess the safety risk posed by cellphone use behind the wheel.

They sought the study based on evidence that such multitasking was a serious and growing threat on America’s roadways.

But such an ambitious study never happened. And the researchers’ agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, decided not to make public hundreds of pages of research and warnings about the use of phones by drivers — in part, officials say, because of concerns about angering Congress.

On Tuesday, the full body of research is being made public for the first time by two consumer advocacy groups, which filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the documents. The Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen provided a copy to The New York Times, which is publishing the documents on its Web site.

In interviews, the officials who withheld the research offered their fullest explanation to date.

The former head of the highway safety agency said he was urged to withhold the research to avoid antagonizing members of Congress who had warned the agency to stick to its mission of gathering safety data but not to lobby states.

Critics say that rationale and the failure of the Transportation Department, which oversees the highway agency, to more vigorously pursue distracted driving has cost lives and allowed to blossom a culture of behind-the-wheel multitasking.

“We’re looking at a problem that could be as bad as drunk driving, and the government has covered it up,” said Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety.

The group petitioned for the information after The Los Angeles Times wrote about the research last year. Mother Jones later published additional details.

The highway safety researchers estimated that cellphone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents over all in 2002.

The researchers also shelved a draft letter they had prepared for Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta to send, warning states that hands-free laws might not solve the problem.

That letter said that hands-free headsets did not eliminate the serious accident risk. The reason: a cellphone conversation itself, not just holding the phone, takes drivers’ focus off the road, studies showed.

The research mirrors other studies about the dangers of multitasking behind the wheel. Research shows 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 .08 blood alcohol content.