Posted on 02/18/2005 2:49:09 PM PST by swilhelm73
Revisions to the Road Traffic Law late last year banning the use of mobile phones while at the wheel have proven effective in decreasing accidents.
The number of car accidents that occurred while drivers were using mobile phones halved since the amended law came into force in November last year, according to the National Police Agency.
A total of 217 such accidents occurred in November and December last year, leaving four people dead and 275 others injured. In the corresponding period of the year earlier, 423 car accidents occurred while their drivers were talking or exchanging e-mail on mobile phones, which caused six people to die and injured 588 others.
Police surveillance at fixed points in wide areas of Japan has shown that 0.7 percent of drivers in Tokyo were using mobile phones while at the wheel following the revisions to the law, as compared with 2.9 percent before the change in the law.
The figures also declined from 1.8 percent to 0.4 percent in Shizuoka Prefecture and 1.9 percent to 0.4 percent in Tokushima Prefecture. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Feb. 17, 2005)
Considering that there were over 900,000 traffic accidents in Japan in each of both years the two month running average would be around 150,000; now, 217/150,000 is a little better than 423/150,000 but the overall change isn't statistically meaningful.
"Revisions to the Road Traffic Law late last year banning the use of mobile phones while at the wheel have proven effective in decreasing accidents.
The number of car accidents that occurred while drivers were using mobile phones halved since the amended law came into force in November last year, according to the National Police Agency. "
If they banned mobile phone use the number of accidents while using phones should go down to zero. If they ban something how can they tell this is helping?
It is to the two less dead.
Enforcing the "Left lane is the passing lane" and all those jerkoffs that go slow in the left lane will get a huge traffic fine will lower traffic deaths more than all other measures combined.
I agree.
In Japan just under 1:100 car wrecks results in a fatality; in the two periods here with cell phone involvement we have 1.5:100 and 2:100 which is somewhat significant but too small for comparison.
Just my point. There are two less dead people. Six dead in Nov and Dec last year before the law, now four dead this year in the same time period. To those two who lived it is not insignificant.
It's their country, they can run it any way they want, but the headline was deliberately misleading.
After it was illegal: Officer asks did you use cell phone ? Answer ______
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