Are Hands-Free Head Sets the Answer?
Julian Decludt steps into his car outside of his house in Northridge and sits down in the driver’s seat. Immediately, he reaches into his glove box and pulls out his Plantronics 320 Blue Tooth head set. He activates the blue tooth option on his cell phone, and, after snapping the head set around his right ear, he puts his key in the ignition and begins driving to California State University, Northridge.
Four years ago, Decludt was involved a cell-phone related car accident. While driving to his friend’s house, the 16-year-old driver got a phone call. He looked down to see who was calling him, and by the time he looked back up his Infiniti J30 was a few feet away from crashing into a giant SUV stopped directly in front of him. Decludt slammed on the breaks, but it was too late. His car crash at about 50 mph straight into the SUV, which flew about 40 feet down the street.
Hands-free head sets have become mandatory for drivers to wear while talking on their cell phones and driving in California. The law became effective July 1, 2008.
Everything next happened so fast. Decludt’s air bag burst and drilled him in the face. He panicked and tried to get out of his car, but the door wouldn’t open. He began smelling burnt rubber and felt like his car was going to explode.
“It was the scariest moment of my life,” Decludt said.
Quickly, he regained his composure. He put his car in park, turned off the ignition and realized his door was locked. He unlocked it and burst out of the car. He lay on the sidewalk panting, still in disbelief of the accident. After all, he had only been driving for a few months.
“I just couldn’t believe it was happening to me. I had heard about so many driving accidents because of cell phones, but I never thought it would happen to me,” he said.
Since the car accident, Decludt has been cautious about the use of his cell phone in his car. Up until early July, he would rarely speak on the phone in his car, and when he did, he made sure to double check his surroundings before looking down and bringing the phone to his ear.
In July, however, plans changed.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger passed California Senate Bill 1613 in 2006, which “prohibits a driver from using a wireless phone while operation a vehicle, unless the phone is specifically designed and configured to allows hands-free operation and is used in that matter.” The only exception to the law is if drivers are calling emergency service providers. The bill became effective July 1, 2008. Drivers hit with a first-time offense will be fined $20. All other offenses will result in a $50 fine.
While Scharzenegger looked at the law as a step in the right direction to minimize accidents in California, others feel the law really doesn’t make a big difference. The law has drawn mixed reviews from Californians.
“For my accident, I was literally looking down for two seconds before I smashed into the car in front of me,” Decludt said. “There’s no way having a hands-free head set on my ear is going to keep me from doing that.
“The distraction of the cell phone is the big problem here, not the fact that I’m holding it in my hand. (Schwarzenegger) missed the big picture,” he added.
Even some California Highway Patrol officers aren’t sold on the plan completely.
“The good thing about not holding the phone to your ear is you do actually have your one hand free to keep on the wheel, but it would seem that the conversation itself is a distraction,” said CHP Officer Heather Hoglund. “Also, [the distraction] depends on what kind of conversation [drivers are having]. If it’s a heated conversation with a spouse or business partner, it could be just as much or a worse distraction than using a hand-held device. Any distraction is not a good distraction, and hands-free [devices] are a good start as far as I’m concerned. They’re just not enough for full safety.”
If safety is the issue California is trying to address, critics believe the state is starting in the wrong places. An American Automobile Association (AAA) Foundation for Traffic Safety study conducted in 2001 concluded 25 percent of car accidents are related to distractions. Even more importantly, however, the study shows only 1.5 percent of those accidents were due to cell phone use.
Distractions that posed bigger problems than cell phone use include an outside object, person or event (29.4 percent), adjusting the radio, cassette or CD (11.4 percent), another occupant in the vehicle (10.9 percent), vehicle / climate controls (2.8 percent) and eating or drinking (1.7 percent).
Although cell phones were only the eighth most common distraction during car accidents, supporters argue the law is important because it improves reaction time in the event of an emergency by allowing both of the driver’s hands to be on the wheel. Also, supporters feel California is making the effort to improve road conditions for drivers.
“It may not fix all of our problems, but I like the law,” said Lorianne Chore, a mother of three who lives in San Pedro. “It makes the roads at least a little bit safer for me and my kids because people will be more focused on the road itself.”
Los Angeles Police Department officer Ana Markey also feels the law can be helpful for all drivers on the streets and freeways.
“I think the law is very effective. If you have something on your ear, it can be blocking your vision at some point, especially when you’re trying to turn and look over your shoulder,” she said. “The conversation can definitely be a problem, but this law is a huge step in the right direction.”
While Markey believes the law is working, her department couldn’t provide any statistics for any decline or rise in Southern California car accidents since July because the process to calculate data accurately can take up to six months.
The new California law aims at decreasing the car accident rate. However, the law does not take into account distracting conversations (Flikr.com).
“There’s a significant lag time in terms of me being comfortable with the numbers being accurate. I could probably have stats by the beginning of 2009. I don’t want to evaluate garbage data that might be completely inaccurate in six months,” she said.
In 2007, 1,453 cell-phone related car accidents occurred across California, according to statistics from CHP Media Relations. Eight accidents were fatal, and 86 were by drivers wearing hands-free devices. While the numbers indicate hands-free devices will decrease car accidents, the distraction of conversing remains the main focus of concern for safety experts.
“The actual conversation is a distraction,” said Fairley Mahlum, director for communications at the AAA Foundation. “We don’t want to give people a false sense of safety that talking hands free is safe.”
New York was the first state to implement a hands-free driving law in 2001. Since that time, Connecticut, Washington D.C., New Jersey, Utah, Washington and the Virgin Islands have adopted similar cell phone restrictions to improve driver safety.
