Wednesday 29 September 2010

Text bans cause accidents

I know it’s tremendously unfashionable here to follow up news stories over a long period, or to ask politicians to back up their expectations after a law change, but new research coming out of the States on the efficacy of text bans—or lack thereof—suggest Transport Nanny Steven Joyce needs to answer some questions.

_Quote Laws banning texting while driving actually may prompt a slight increase in road crashes, research out today shows… Researchers at the Highway Loss Data Institute compared rates of collision insurance claims in four states — California, Louisiana, Minnesota and Washington — before and after they enacted texting bans. Crash rates rose in three of the states after bans were enacted…

The reason for the rise?  Looks like our old friend the Law of Unintended Consequences again.

So who’s going to be the first to ask Nanny Joyce to comment?

[Hat tip Overlawyered]

1 comment:

BBBob said...

Long time reader, first time poster... all that sort of thing.

Usually I like what I see here, but this is just a load of crap. People text while driving when they're not allowed to, causing accidents because their eyes are off the road, and it's the law's fault?

Any time you'd like to take a reality tablet would be good.