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Whether ignoring state laws by holding your mobile phone when behind the wheel or playing safe by using a hands-free device, the U.S. National Safety Council (NSC) is calling for a complete in-car ban on phone use after a study revealed worrying figures related to deaths and injuries.
NSC calls for a total ban on in-car phone use. Image: satguru/Flickr.
Unveiled in an NSC announcement made on Monday, numbers put forth by the congressionally chartered agency suggest that 636,000 vehicle crashes are attributed to in-car mobile phone use each year, which equates to some 6 percent of all crashes across the country.
Further focusing on the cited Harvard Center for Risk Analysis study, the NSC is also keen to point out that 2,600 mobile phone users are killed and around 12,000 sustain serious injuries on the roads each year.
Beyond using its unnerving figures to urge motorists to turn off their phones and concentrate solely on driving, the NSC is also hoping individual states will act on the study by considering the implementation of specific laws to ban all forms of in-car mobile phone usage.
As it stands, the likes of Alaska, California, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey and Washington enforce laws that require the use of hands-free technology for those who simply cannot be without their mobile phones. However, the NSC believes that even hands-free access is an in-car distraction.
“When you’re on a call, even if both hands are on the wheel, your head is in the call, and not on your driving,” warned Janet Froetscher, president and CEO of the National Safety Council in an official statement.
“The change we are looking for, to stop cell phone use while driving, won’t happen overnight,” she added. “There will be a day, however, when we look back and wonder how we could have been so reckless with our cell phones and texting devices.”
Presently, almost 20 states have introduced some form of legislation addressing in-car mobile phone access, although some laws only target those guilty of texting while driving, while others insist on hands-free communication or only enforce restrictions against novice drivers.
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