Cellphone Laws, Texting While Driving, and Traffic Crashes Among the Youngest Drivers

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT Teenage drivers have the highest proportion of cellphone-related crashes, and traffic crashes are their leading cause of death. The death rate among drivers age 14-17 years hiked 17% from 2014 to 2016 nationally, with increasing cellphone-related distracted-driving as a suggested contributor. While 40 states and DC had enacted young-driver phone laws to ban all cellphone use or handheld use by September 2017, provisions vary greatly (e.g., all cellphone ban vs. handheld phone ban, all license types vs. learner permits/intermediate licenses). The extent to which young-driver phone bans and their specific provisions reduce texting and crashes is unknown. Therefore, we propose a four-year project with objectives to determine, across multiple states, the impact of young-driver phone bans and universal phone bans (i.e., for all ages) on texting or emailing while driving, and the rates of injury and fatal crashes among teens (