While traffic officials applaud a new law that makes it illegal for drivers to read, write or send text messages, they admit there is little evidence that last year's ban against talking on a hand-held cellphone has actually prevented accidents.
Since holding a phone to your ear was made a traffic violation last July, the California Highway Patrol has written about 48,000 tickets, fining drivers from $20 to $50.
City police and sheriff's departments across the state have likely written thousands more, officials say, and sometimes charge higher fines. The Santa Monica Police Department issued about 1,200 tickets in 2008.
But just how effective the law has been no one can say, just as they can't say speeding tickets necessarily keep drivers from stepping too hard on the gas.
Santa Monica Police Sgt. Larry Horn, who often patrols on a motorcycle, believes the hands-free law has made a difference.
"Six months ago, everywhere I looked someone who was driving was on the phone," he said. "From the saddle, I'm seeing less people on the phone now."
Six states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws against using hand-held cellphones while driving and another six states have given local jurisdictions the option of prohibiting it, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
However, it wasn't hard this week to gather a few scary tales about drivers who appeared to be distracted with a cellphone pressed to one ear.
About three months ago, Laura Silverman said, she was walking through a Vons parking lot in Tarzana when a green SUV "barreled" backward out of its parking space, grazing her slightly. The driver was using a cellphone.
"I wasn't hurt," said Silverman, 52, an artist, writer and blogger. "But I said, 'Why don't you get off the phone when you're driving,' and she looked at me and said, 'Why don't you get your fat [posterior] out of the way!' I was a little stunned."
Traffic safety advocates have long argued that cellphone laws are needed. In 2007, eight people died and 534 suffered some type of injury in crashes where hand-held cellphones were partially to blame, according to the CHP. Those deaths made up only two-tenths of a percent of the state's traffic fatalities that year.
Still, around the nation there is a paucity of data on the role cellphones have played in crashes.
