A new report, written by researchers at the West Virginia University School of Public Health, asserts that state laws restricting driver handheld cell phone use probably aren’t making much impact on the number of injuries caused by distracted driving. The researchers push for a different tack -- technology that disables handheld cell phones when the vehicle is in motion.

“Keeping an Eye on Distracted Driving” appears in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The paper was co-authored by Jeffrey H. Coben, M.D., interim dean of the WVU School of Public Health, and Motao Zhu, M.D., Ph.D. Both study public health and safety topics through WVU’s Injury Control Research Center.

“Solving this problem will require new approaches,” Coben said. “My hope is that 10 years from now, there will be systems built into all automobiles that disable all hand-held devices when the car is in motion, allow only hands-free phone usage and convert incoming text messages to voice and outgoing voice commands to text using hands-free voice recognition technology.”  

Coben and Zhu both advocate the federal government taking greater action, including setting new safety standards requiring the development and implementation of this technology. Their shared opinion is that combining new technology with improved safety standards has the potential to save lives, and that failure to act will result in the continued loss of thousands of lives each year to distracted driving-related crashes.

Coben and Zhu note that in 2003, cell phone use while driving was estimated to cause over 300,000 total injuries annually, including 2,600 fatalities. The numbers increased 22% between 2005 and 2009. The problem is expected to worsen in coming years, despite efforts to curtail distracted driving.

“Young drivers are at greatest risk, both because they use cell phones more than older drivers and because they are inexperienced behind the wheel,” Coben said. “I see this problem only getting worse unless more is done to prevent it.”

Zhu agrees.

“I think the problem will be getting worse before starting to level off, since many young drivers have grown up with mobile devices and texting is very popular among them,” he said. “Still, I do believe there will be a point where these numbers will level off. It will take long-term and concerted efforts, as have been employed with encouraging seat belt use and discouraging drunk driving.”

West Virginia is one of 39 states that have banned text messaging by all drivers, while talking on a handheld device behind the wheel has been outlawed in 10 states, plus the District of Columbia. A number of public awareness campaigns have been implemented by insurance companies, safety advocacy groups, transportation agencies and public health groups. Still, these efforts don’t seem to be enough to make an impact on behaviors. Improvements in technology may be the best answer, said Coben.