The most recent study , however, found that such laws are moderately successful, but only if they ar

In California, you can now be pulled over for using the map application on your smart phone while driving. Building upon California's current ban on texting while driving, an appellate court in California womens adventure travel v. Spriggs argued that the distraction would be present whether the wireless telephone was being used as a telephone, a GPS navigator a clock or a device for sending and receiving text messages and emails.
These distracted driving laws have a mixed history of effectiveness. In 2010, a study in the American Journal of Public Health found that Any reduction in accidents following texting bans is short-lived, however, with accidents returning to near former levels within a few months.
The most recent study , however, found that such laws are moderately womens adventure travel successful, but only if they are strictly womens adventure travel enforced. The study , to be published in next month's American Economic Journal: Applied Economics , only looked at scenarios where the blame could be squarely placed on (digitally) distracted driving: single-vehicle, single-occupancy crashes. In some states, for instance, police cannot pull a driver over for texting while driving, but only add on a citation to another violation. In states with "strong" bans, driving fatalities were reduced 8 percent.
In Spriggs , the judge left it open as to whether the law should also apply to checking things like email, or whether drivers could safely use a hands-free version of GPS. Either way, the National Safety Council warns, there is no research or evidence that indicates voice-activated technologies eliminate or even reduce the distraction to the drivers' mind.