Colorado state troopers have begun asking drivers involved in traffic wrecks whether they were using cell phones, hoping to determine whether the phones are a threat to public safety.
Troopers began asking on Jan. 1. The information is recorded on accident investigation forms.
“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,” Trooper Gil Mares said Tuesday.
“We don’t have any numbers, but we think using a cell phone while driving is a contributing factor in accidents,” he said.
Before the tracking began, some motorists in accidents had told troopers they were distracted because they were chatting on the phone or had dropped a phone, Mares said. Witnesses have called the patrol to report drivers running stoplights or stop signs or breaking other traffic laws while on the phone, he said.
Carole Walker of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association said insurers are interested in what the State Patrol finds.
“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,” she said.
Results of the Colorado study are not expected until next year.
The Legislature has considered proposals outlawing cell phone use while driving and passed a law last year limiting cell phone use by new drivers.
Several other states have passed laws banning or curtailing the practice. California will join the list in 2008.
