WASHINGTON — Targeting inexperienced motorists, several states have passed laws restricting cell phone use by teenage drivers. But a study being released today indicates many teens are ignoring such restrictions.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety studied North Carolina’s law, enacted in 2006, which fines motorists under age 18 who are caught using a cell phone.
Researchers who watched as high school students left school found that teenage drivers used their cell phones about the same rate both before and after the law took effect. In South Carolina, which does not have a similar restriction, cell phone use by teenage drivers was about the same for both periods studied.
A separate phone survey of North Carolina parents and teenagers showed widespread support for their state’s law, but more than three in five reported that enforcement was rare or nonexistent.
In the North Carolina study, researchers found that 11 percent of teenage drivers who were observed while leaving 25 high schools during the two months before the ban took effect were using cell phones. About five months after the ban took effect, during the spring of 2007, nearly 12 percent were observed using phones.
In South Carolina, observers found that 13 percent of high school students departing 18 high schools used cell phones while driving. The rates were consistent during the same two time periods studied in North Carolina.
“Cell phone bans for teen drivers are difficult to enforce,” said Anne McCartt, the institute’s senior vice president for research. “Drivers with phones to their ears aren’t hard to spot, but it’s nearly impossible for police officers to see hands-free devices or correctly guess how old drivers are.”
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers, according to the government’s auto safety agency, and teenagers are involved in three times as many fatal crashes as all other drivers.
The institute says 17 states and the District of Columbia have cell phone restrictions in licensing requirements for teen drivers.
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
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