Drunk driving deaths down in 28 states, but that's not the headline

Via Radley Balko I saw this great story: Drunken driving deaths up in 22 states. As Radley points out, the article states that deaths are down overall, and in 28 states (plus DC and Puerto Rico), but the headline (and the entire rest of the article) is all about the negative.

Because of what I'm about to say, I feel the need to say that driving while intoxicated is stupid and irresponsible. Drunk driving is, like so many topics in modern America, totally unassailable. And it, just like everything else, shouldn't be.

That being said, I feel the need to point out that this is kind of a crock. Driving at .08 is less dangerous than driving while talking on a cell phone. That's hard to believe, I know, but tons of studies and even the MythBusters have come to that conclusion. The total "alcohol related" fatalities statistic is almost surely meaningless. You can register a BAC after taking tons of medicines or other innocuous ways, and you don't even need a measurable BAC for an accident to be "alcohol related", there just needs to be "evidence of alcohol", whatever that means. After all of this, these statistics are all exaggerated, sometimes flagrantly so. From the link:

According to the painstaking research of Stephen Beck of Drinkers Against Mad Mothers, only 500 innocent Americans are killed each year by drunk drivers. As many Americans are killed in railway accidents each year.

Now I haven't looked at his research, so I'd take that number with a grain of salt, but the point still stands that drunk driving isn't as big of a problem as articles like this make it out to be. I'm far more worried about being hit by some idiot who's just not paying attention than an idiot who's had a few too many. And in reality, I think we all are.

Driving and Talking on a Cell Phone is Dangerous

Is diving while talking on a cell phone more dangerous than driving drunk? Anyone familiar with MythBusters will know that their tests said that it is (at least while driving at the legal limit). But in “typical MythBusters fashion” their sample was too small. What do real studies have to say about this?

The professional studies back it up too. A recent University of Toronto study found that drivers talking on cell phones are four to five times as likely to get into accidents, and that hands-free sets do little to decrease these odds. A study from Perth, Australia found the same increase in risk. Another study from the University of Utah also found that hands-free sets do little to offset the chances of an accident. These are just some of the many studies done that all come to the same conclusion, driving while talking is hazardous.

Continue reading...There is a clear danger from driving while talking on a cell phone, arguably as great as or greater than from driving drunk. What is being done about it? A handful of states have totally outlawed it: New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Washington DC, as well as a few towns. A few more have partial bans, and as many as 2/3 have proposed legislation at some point.

What I want to know is where is the outrage? Driving with a cell phone is clearly dangerous, but nothing like the crackdown against drunk driving is happening. Why? My best guess is that not enough people have died yet, and cell phones aren’t as good of a scapegoat as alcohol. There are no groups like MADD spreading anti-cell phone propaganda, and not enough people are putting pressure on lawmakers.

There’s also no cultural stigma against it, evidenced by how many people do it. If you think about, the quintuple increase in chance of an accident combined with the number of people doing it means that you’re probably far more likely to be in a phone-related accident than an alcohol-related one. Why is no one outraged?

Driving while talking is dangerous, without a doubt. So do something about it, even if it means refusing to talk while you’re in a car. You might just save a life.