by Margine Quintanilla Romero
Free Hands law takes effect Driving while holding the cell with one hand, and with the other the wheel could become a thing of the past, or income for the government if drivers don’t change their habits.
The new “free hands” law that restricts the use of cell phones while driving, might save thousands of lives, said a study published by Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).
According to this information it is expected that of 4,000 deaths that the state of California registers at present, there should be 300 deceases less when this law takes effect on July 1.
The New York experience, which in the year 2001 became the first state with a ¯free hands” law, it indicated that the deaths in adverse conditions remained in a level more under several years after the law entered into effect, especially when there is bad weather or the highways are wetted, says the study.
Likewise, it reaffirms that the laws that demand “ free hands ” have limited the deaths in 30 to 60 percent.
These conclusions differ from previous studies that said that motorists who were free hands ” were so distracted as those who were using the hand phones. These investigations are based on motorists’ polls, laboratory simulations and remarks on vehicles equipped with devices to record the behavior and the distractions of a motorist.
A cell could destroy you auto and also your life
On this topic Jed Kolko, attached investigator of PPIC, declared that it is possible that the motorists consider the technology “ free hands ” bothersome, and use the phone with less frequency. “Or they might change the minutes of conversation to moments when the conditions to drive are less dangerous ”, he said.
Nevertheless, for Kolko, the fact itself of having this law might serve as an educational function, a warning on the dangers of speaking while driving.
In spite of the questions without response on the way in which the cell phones affect the deaths toll when driving, and the motive of these, the results of the study suggest strategies to guide public policy. ¯Since the benefi ts of the laws ‘ free hands ’ depend on the conditions of conduction, it is logical to apply with more force the laws when the above mentioned conditions of conduction are more diffi cult. That can save lives ”, pointed out Kolko.
In the United States, the “free hands¯ laws are in effect in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and in the District of Columbia, as well as in several cities, among then Chicago and Santa Fe, New Mexico. The state of Washington also will have a ¯free hands¯ law that will take effect on July 1.
