There are a growing number of people who would like to see the use of cell phones banned in moving vehicles. What most of these people will not tell you is it will cost society money to ban cell phones, cell phones are the least "distraction" occurring in cars, and there are many benefits to using cell phones while driving.

The first issue brought up by the anti cell phone opponents is banning the use of cell phones while driving would save society billions of dollars in health care costs and damage to personal property every year. While at first this may seem to be the truth, when all the facts are studied this proves to be a false assumption. Several studies have shown that banning the use of cell phones while driving would actually cost society money every year. A research paper written by Robert W. Hahn and Patrick M. Dudley from the AEI-Bookings Joint ce

With the growing number of mobile cell phone users, there is an "unmeasured deterrent" effect on reckless driving and other criminal behavior. Would-be offenders are now aware of the ease with which drivers can report a crime through prompt use of a cell phone while driving and therefore, are more apt not to commit these activities". (Lissy, et al.)

While it is true that cell phones can cause a distraction leading to an automobile accident, the risk of causing an accident while using a cell phone is very low. In a study conducted for the American Automobile Association "only 1.5 percent of drivers placed cell phone distractions as the reason for their accident, 11.4 percent of drivers stated that adjusting their radio, cassette, or CD player was the cause of their accident, while 10.9 percent blamed talking to an occupant in their vehicle" (Stutts, el at.). The State of Florida completed another study in the first half of last year and discovered "that out of the 102,000 accidents tracked, distracted drivers caused 10 percent of the accidents. Out of that 10 percent just 1/10 of a percent were caused by the use of a cell phone, that's only 140 out of 102,000 crashes caused by the use of a cell phone." (Langley).

effective way to save lives. They used the results of a study conducted by Redelmeier

The next argument that exists in the anti cell phone arsenal is there are no positive benefits to using a cell phone in a moving motor vehicle. Once again the anti cell phone opponents are w

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