Bans on Cellphone Use While Driving and Traffic Fatalities in the United States.

ABSTRACT:

Background

As of January 2020, 18 of 50 US states comprehensively banned almost all handheld cellphone use while driving, 3 states and the District of Columbia banned calling and texting, 27 states banned texting on a handheld cellphone, and 2 states had no general cellphone ban for all drivers. However, it remains unknown whether these bans were associated with fewer traffic deaths and whether comprehensive handheld bans are more effective than isolated calling or texting bans. We evaluated whether cellphone bans were associated with fewer driver, non-driver, and total fatalities nationally.

Methods

We conducted a longitudinal panel analysis of traffic fatality rates by state, year, and quarter. Population-based rate ratios and 95% CIs were estimated comparing state-quarter

SUBMITTER: Zhu M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8318565 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature