State to track wireless use, car wrecks

Deborah Frazier, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 17, 2007 at midnight

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Drivers who chat on cell phones be warned: The Colorado State Patrol is now asking drivers involved in fatal, serious injury and even fender- bender crashes whether a cell phone was in use.

The new information will go on the accident report form, helping the State Patrol, insurers and lawmakers determine if cell phone use while driving poses a public safety issue, said Gil Mares of the State Patrol.

While most drivers tell the truth, Mares said, cell phone records have been subpoenaed in lawsuits in other states where cell phone use was suspected as a cause, he said.

"Over the years, we've seen an increase in cell phone usage in accidents, but we've never had a system to track how much of a factor cell phone use was," Mares said.

The new reporting went into effect Jan. 1.

Distractions of various kinds cause 23 percent of all vehicle crashes, national studies have found.

The same studies found that cell phone use - talking, dialing, reaching for the phone - while driving accounted for 80 percent of the distractions.

"We don't have any numbers, but we think using a cell phone while driving is a contributing factor in accidents," Mares said.

Long before the tracking system was initiated, some people told troopers that they weren't paying full attention because they were on the phone, had dropped the phone or had a conversation going on just before a crash.

Witness calls to the State Patrol about cell phone use causing an accident, causing a driver to run a stop sign or light or violate other traffic laws also prompted the tracking system, Mares said.

Four states ban or curtail cell phone use while driving. California will join the list in 2008, and other states are moving in that direction.

Colorado lawmakers have debated outlawing cell phone use while driving. In 2005, lawmakers curtailed cell phone use by new drivers.

"It's one of those things that people know they shouldn't do, but do anyway because they think it's low risk, but the statistics show otherwise," said Carole Walker of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association.

The association represents insurers in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Walker said insurance companies are interested in the State Patrol's findings, which won't be available for more than a year.

In other parts of the country, employers have been sued because their employee was using a cell phone for work while driving and caused an accident, she said.

David Bell, an Allstate Insurance claims specialist in Colorado, said attorneys have concerns when there's an allegation that the driver was on a cell phone.

Text messaging while driving increases the accident risk, Walker said. Surveys of teens show text messaging while driving is their biggest distraction, she said.

Mares said that a Colorado case involved a teenage boy text messaging while driving and hitting a bicyclist. The teen was convicted in the cyclist's death.

"Part of the boy's sentence was to talk to others about not using a cell phone while driving," he said.

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