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OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, October 21, 2009 · 22 Study finds differing long-term effects of hand-held cellphone laws Metroland Newspapers Carguide Magazine The U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety researchers recently conducted a new round of observations of driver use of hand-held phones in three jurisdictions where ban took effect in 2004. the practice is banned. The findings, along with results of preNearly five years later use has edged up a little, but vious studies, reveal differing effects. the decline is largely holding relative to nearby In the District of Columbia, the proportion of drivers using Virginia and Maryland. hand-held phones dropped by about half immediately after a The story is different in New York, the first US state to prohibit drivers from using hand-held phones in 2001. Connecticut enacted a ban in 2005. Comparing trends in these states over time, researchers found immediate effects of both laws. Cellphone use declined an estimated 76 per cent in Connecticut and 47 per cent in New York. But then use began going back up. To quantify the long-term effects, researchers observed phone use multiple times during 2001-09 in both the study states and nearby communities without phone bans. The purpose was to estimate the proportion of drivers expected to be using hand-held phones if the laws hadn't been enacted. By this measure, hand-held phone use was an estimated 65 per cent lower in Connecticut, 24 percent lower in New York, and 43 lower in the District of Columbia than would have been expected without the laws. In Connecticut and New York, phone use was higher in spring 2009 among women of all ages compared with men and higher among drivers younger than 25 versus 25-59 year-olds. Only one per cent of drivers 60 and older were observed using phones. Researchers at the same organization say the risk associated with text messaging may be much higher, based on a new study of truck drivers. The main finding is a 23-fold increase in the odds of crashing, nearly crashing, or drifting from a travel lane among truckers who texted while they drove. A limitation is that most of the incidents involved lane drift or other driver error, not crashes, and it is unknown how such incidents relate to actual crashes. Subaru Outback named MOTOR TREND's 2010 Sport/Utility of the Year Metroland Newspapers Carguide Magazine Subaru has announced that the Subaru Outback has been named Motor Trend Magazine's 2010 Sport Utility of the Year. The Subaru Outback's victory follows the Subaru Forester's win for the 2009 award, making Subaru the first automaker to win two consecutive Motor Trend Sport Utility of the Year awards. Living up to Subaru's legendary safety record, the Outback offers cutting-edge safety technology, including Subaru's ring reinforcement safety system, front, seat-mounted side, and side-curtain airbags and ABS. Subaru Vehicle Dynamics Control (VDC) system, which incorporates stability and traction control systems with a roll over sensor, is also standard equipment. The U. S. Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) recently named the Subaru Outback a Top Safety Pick.