Drivers complying with NY cell-phone ban, research says. (News).

RCR Wireless News, August, 2002 by Mooney, Elizabeth V.

NEW YORK--It's unclear whether New York's statewide ban on holding a cell phone while driving has impacted the number of car accidents in the state, but it has reduced that kind of handset use by half, at least in the short run, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said in a report. On three separate hour-long occasions, researchers observed a total of 37,000 vehicles in four small-to-medium-sized cities in upstate New York and another 21,000 vehicles in neighboring Connecticut, where no such law was in effect.

The first set of observations, conducted last October, one month before the law became effective, revealed that 2.3 percent of drivers in both states used handheld phones. Shortly after the one-month warning period ended last...