Driver Cellphone Bans Questioned

As California gears up to start enforcing a law banning hand-held cellphone use by its millions of drivers, a new study casts doubt on whether such laws do much good in many situations. The study, from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, predicts that the state's hands-free requirement, which goes into effect July 1, will reduce traffic deaths in the state by 300 a year. But the institute -- which reached its conclusion by studying state-by-state traffic-fatality data, including data from a handful of states that already restrict cellphones on the road -- found a decrease in deaths only when people drove in adverse conditions, such as in rain, or on wet or icy roads.
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