As state legislatures keep proposing bans on hand-held phone and text use by drivers, they may want to take a look at a new study by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) that found no reductions in crashes in jurisdictions where these bans took place.

Researches from the HLDI looked at collision claims in the District of Columbia, New York, Connecticut, and California, before and after bans went into effect in their respective state. They found that collision claims not only didn’t drop in any significant way, they followed the same trends as states that did not have any ban in place.

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"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 HLDI.

"If crash risk increases with phone use and fewer drivers use phones where it's illegal to do so,” Lund continued, “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. We're currently gathering data to figure out this mismatch."

Lund said the likeliest explanation was that hands-free phone use, which is still permitted in states that have enacted bans, might be just as dangerous as hand-holding a phone.

"Whatever the reason, the key finding is that crashes aren't going down where hand-held phone use has been banned," Lund concluded. "This finding doesn't auger well for any safety payoff from all the new laws that ban phone use and texting while driving.