WASHINGTON-A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit against a North Carolina firm and a former driver, who-while reaching for a fallen cell phone-rammed his tractor trailer into the back of a school bus and killed a six-year-old girl in January.
No details on the confidential settlement were available. But an attorney involved in the lawsuit said the settlement with insurance companies of Mountaire Farms of North Carolina compensates Maria De Jesus Hernandez-Gutierrez for physical injuries and other suffering from the accident that killed her daughter Sheila.
The driver, Gary Garnett, pleaded no contest in state court in June to misdemeanor death by motor vehicle. Garnett was spared jail time, but lost his business driver’s license for a year and was put on probation for six months.
Next week, in a Mississippi state court, lawyers plan to formally respond to a $15 million lawsuit against a car dealer who is alleged to have been talking on his cell phone when he ran a stoplight and crashed into another vehicle, killing Gregory Warner. His wife, the mother of two minor children, filed the lawsuit.
Crashes caused by drivers distracted by cell-phone conversations have prompted some states and towns to ban use of handheld phones while driving, while permitting hands-free cellular calls.
However, a new report by the American Enterprise Institute-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies says hands-free laws-like those in New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia-do not necessarily make the nation’s highways safer. But they add they cannot reject the notion that such laws play no role in reducing accidents.
The authors, Robert Hahn of AEI and James Prieger, an economics professor at the University of California at Davis, said their study differs from previous ones because they used a larger sample (More than 7,000 people were surveyed)-and tested for selection bias. For example, they found that people who are more likely to use hands-free devices tend to be more careful drivers.
As such, the audthors said selection bias and other factors may mean previous studies overestimated the impact of cell phones on driving by 36 percent.
“Because we find there is more uncertainty than previously suggested in the relationship between cell-phone use while driving and accidents, cost-benefit analyses of proposed bans should reflect this uncertainty,” the authors stated. “We expect that including the uncertainty in the relationship between cell-phone use and accidents will make the decision to regulate more difficult.”
A 2002 study conducted by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis and funded by AT&T Wireless Services Inc. concluded the risk of using a cell phone while driving appears small compared to other daily tasks. The Harvard study warned against restricting driver use of wireless phones until more research is conducted.
AEI and Brookings officials did not return calls for comment on the funding source for the new joint study.
Other states are considering following the lead of New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia on hands-free legislation, despite other research and anecdotal data (from New York) that tend to support the AEI-Brookings’ proposition that hands-free laws do not work. Federal legislation to make hands-free the law of the land was introduced in Congress several years ago, but did not move forward.
The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration is conducting research on driver distractions, and is sponsoring an ad campaign to stress driver safety to cell phone-crazed teens.
The mobile-phone industry is largely opposed to hands-free laws, arguing education is the key. Verizon Wireless, the No. 1 carrier, supports hands-free restrictions. Meantime, Cingular Wireless L.L.C has the industry’s most aggressive safety campaign aimed at teen cellular subscribers.
