Conservatively Speaking
State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) represents parts of four counties: Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, and Walworth. Her Senate District 28 includes New Berlin, Franklin, Greendale, Hales Corners, Muskego, Waterford, Big Bend, the town of Vernon and parts of Greenfield, East Troy, and Mukwonago. Senator Lazich has been in the Legislature for more than a decade. She considers herself a tireless crusader for lower taxes, reduced spending and smaller government.
Cellphone, texting bans have not reduced accidents
During the past few months, I have blogged that banning texting while driving is unnecessary and that texting bans are essentially ignored.
There is more data shedding doubt on the effectiveness of such laws. In what is being called a shocking report that was highlighted in a front page story in USA TODAY, the Highway Loss Data Institute HLDI) has found that laws banning the use of hand-held devices have not reduced the number of accidents in three states and the nation’s capital.
The HLDI writes, “As state legislators across the
"The laws aren't reducing crashes, even though we know that such laws have reduced hand-held phone use, and several studies have established that phoning while driving increases crash risk," says Adrian Lund, president of both the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and HLDI. "If crash risk increases with phone use and fewer drivers use phones where it's illegal to do so, we would expect to see a decrease in crashes. But we aren't seeing it. Nor do we see collision claim increases before the phone bans took effect. This is surprising, too, given what we know about the growing use of cellphones and the risk of phoning while driving.”
Read more from the
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