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Many states have passed texting-while-driving laws, but are they working?

New study looks at the effectiveness of bans across the country.

By Patricia Harman | Updated on August 15, 2014

Drivers know not to text and drive, but they still do it. Now there is hard evidence that states with texting bans are saving lives. With more than 7 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide according to the International Telecommunications Union and mobiThinking, that’s a lot of texting.

A new study by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health examined the effects of various texting bans on motor vehicular fatalities in 48 states from 2000-2010. They found that states with primary-enforcement laws for texting, meaning an officer can pull over a driver for texting and driving, saw a 3% reduction in traffic fatalities across all age groups, or an average of 19 deaths per year. Texting bans had the greated impact on young drivers aged 15-21 years – an 11% reduction in deaths.

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