Sunday, October 3, 2010

Texting bans may add risk to roads

Laws banning texting while driving actually may prompt a slight increase in road crashes, research out today shows.

The findings, to be unveiled at a meeting here of 550 traffic safety professionals from around the USA, come amid a heightened national debate over distracted driving.

"Texting bans haven't reduced crashes at all," says Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, whose research arm studied the effectiveness of the laws.

Last year in the USA, 5,474 people were killed and another 448,000 injured in crashes involving distracted driving, defined as operating a vehicle in a careless or inattentive manner, the government says.

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