There is only one cell phone law in the State of Georgia; the one relating to school bus drivers. That may change if the Bill in the House dealing with this is passed.
Who hasn’t been behind a person on cell phone trying to drive at the same time and making a total mess of it? Cell phone use while driving and texting while driving are two new additions to what makes driving a real hazard in the 21st century. That last brutal car crash on the Interstate, the one that took the life of a young teenage boy, was the result of the teen texting while driving. He never saw the 18-wheeler he slid under.
“While it may seem to be a no-brainer that people who use cell phones and drive at the same time are accidents looking for a place to happen, this isn’t easy to prove statistically speaking. I just recently read a study released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety that indicated bans on handheld cell phone usage while driving didn’t make a different to accident rates. This piqued my interest and I did some further research, knowing Georgia was about to pass a ban into law,” commented Stephen Ozcomert, an Atlanta personal injury and malpractice attorney.
The study went on to reveal that in states with bans and in states without bans, the accident rates had gone down slightly. “Perhaps people are being more responsible and not using cell phones while driving? Hardly, take a good look at rush hour traffic. Are the figures suggesting hands-free cells are better than handheld ones? This would be another no, as talking on the cell phone while driving, hands free or not, is a distraction and causes accidents,” added Ozcomert.
And the final question the study considered is whether or not states needed to ban handheld cells if the accident rates didn’t seem to be affected. All good questions, but let’s not forget that numbers are numbers, and numbers don’t always translate into the reality on the streets where the accidents are happening.
The other major gaff this study appears to have made was in assuming some things that may have not been true. For example, they assumed that people who used handheld cells may have switched to hands free cells at some period of time during the two year study. Interesting assumption; but still an assumption nonetheless, and one that can’t necessarily be proven.
Given what the police see pretty much daily, it’s safe to say that cell phones and driving do not mix – period. And that doesn’t matter if they are hands free or handheld. “Indeed, other research has clearly indicated those who use cell phones while driving to talk or text are four times more likely to have accidents. In other words, that study bluntly pointed out that texting/phoning while driving was just as stupid as everyone thinks it is,” said Stephen Ozcomert, an Atlanta personal injury and malpractice attorney.
In Georgia, the hold up to pass a ban on cell phones while driving has to do with politicians wondering how anyone can tell the difference between texting and dialing a phone. This likely doesn’t really matter much in the final analysis, as a fatal accident is a fatal accident, whether the driver was texting or dialing at the moment of impact.
To learn more visit http://www.ozcomert.com.
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The law offices of Stephen M. Ozcomert specialize in personal injury, accidents, and malpractice law in Atlanta Georgia.