Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Study: Car Call Value Equals Crash Cost

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Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2002 00:50:35 -0500

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Study: Car Call Value Equals Crash Cost

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Researchers say increased cell phone use has led to more crashes caused by drivers on the phone, but the value people place on being able to call from the road roughly equals the accidents' cost.

Source:

AP Online

Date:

12/02/2002 00:20

Price:

Free

Document Size:

Very Short (0826 words)

Document ID:

EA20021202180000010

Subject(s):

National

Author(s):

NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

Document Type:

Articles & General info

Study: Car Call Value Equals Crash Cost

Story Filed: Monday, December 02, 2002 12:20 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Researchers say increased cell phone use has
led to more crashes caused by drivers on the phone, but the value
people place on being able to call from the road roughly equals the
accidents' cost.

Opponents of banning cell phone usage by drivers have cited
studies that showed the benefit of car calls outweighed the toll
from such accidents -- medical bills and property damage, for
example.

Harvard researchers, drawing on previous research involving cell
phones and government figures for auto accidents, says in a study
there is a growing public health risk from the reliance on cell
phones in cars. The number of cell phone subscribers has grown from
94 million in 2000 to more than 128 million.

Data on the number of crashes caused by cell phones is
incomplete, said the study being released Monday by the Harvard
Center for Risk Analysis. But it suggested that drivers talking on
their phones are responsible for about 6 percent of U.S. auto
accidents each year, killing an estimated 2,600 people and injuring
330,000 others.

The figure was reached using current cell phone usage estimates
to update a 1997 study. That study looked at phone records of
Canadian drivers involved in crashes to see if they were making
calls at the time.

The cell phone industry found fault with the projections and
their connection to wireless phones.

``It's sort of assumptions built on assumptions,'' said Kimberly
Kuo, spokeswoman for the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet
Association. ``There are not a lot of substantial findings that
allow us to make policy conclusions.''

The Harvard researchers also updated previous studies on the
economic costs associated with accidents caused by cell phones,
such as medical bills and loss of life. The costs added up to an
estimated $43 billion a year -- about the same as the researchers
arrived at for the value that cell phone owners put on their
phones.

Joshua Cohen, lead author of the study, said an individual has a
small risk of being in an accident caused by a driver who is
talking on the phone, but an overall public health issue exists
nonetheless. At the same time, he urged careful consideration when
deciding whether to ban cell phone usage.

``People place a value on these calls, so just wiping out the
phone calls and saying we are going to ban them, that's not
something that should be taken lightly,'' he said.

Cell phone owners cited benefits such as security and peace of
mind for instant communication, increased productivity, privacy and
quicker crime and accident reporting.

New York state banned driver cell phone use for drivers use in
June 2001. Six other states have some regulation of in-vehicle use
of cell phones, ranging from a one-hand-on-the-steering-wheel rule
to prohibiting school bus drivers from using a phone.

Felix Ortiz, a New York assemblyman who fought for six years to
pass the ban, is helping lawmakers elsewhere write similar
legislation.

``Whether they say I'm crazy or they harass me, you know what? I
think I am doing the right thing for the public safety and for the
quality of life,'' he said.

The Harvard study found that a cell phone user has about a 13
chances in 1 million of being killed in an accident while making a
call; that compares with 49 in 1 million for someone driving
without a seat belt.

Other drivers and pedestrians have about four chances in 1
million of dying in an accident caused by a cell phone user,
according to the study. Their chance of being killed by a drunken
driver is more than four times as high -- 18 in a million.

The statistics are based on an average cell phone owner using
600 minutes a year.

Harvard's statistics update a center study released two years
ago that estimated the chance of being killed while driving and
talking on a cell phone were about six in a million and 1.5 in a
million for other people on the road.

The original study was financed by the center and a grant from
AT&T. The second phase was paid for solely by the center, which is
supported by money from government, academia and individuals and
private companies, including some automakers and insurers.

The original study found that the costs saved by a cell phone
ban would be $2 billion, compared with about $25 billion in
benefits lost, meaning a cell phone ban would have a loss to
society of about $23 billion.

Cohen said the figures changed because more people are using
cell phones, and they have better estimates of accidents caused by
cell phone use, including those not reported to authorities.

On the Net: Harvard Center for Risk Analysis:

http://www.hcra.harvard.edu

Copyright © 2002 Associated Press Information Services, all rights reserved.

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