[Leroy]

The National Safety Council created the Annual Estimate of Cell Phone Crashes because data about cell phone use as a factor in motor vehicle crashes is currently under-reported. In jurisdictions where police attempt to collect this data, they must rely almost entirely on driver self-reports or witness reports of cell phone use at the time of the crash, resulting in significant under reporting.

The NSC estimate includes property damage only crashes as well as injury and fatal crashes.

Estimates
* The NSC model estimates 21 percent of crashes or 1.1 million crashes in 2010 involve talking on handheld and hands-free cell phones.
* The model estimates an additional 3 percent or more crashes or a minimum of 160,000 of crashes in 2010 involve text messaging.
* Thus a total of a minimum of 24% of crashes involve drivers talking and texting on cell phones.

How many total crashes were there in 2010? 5,419,000

How many people were injured in motor-vehicle crashes in 2010? 2,243,000

How many people were killed in motor-vehicle crashes in 2010? 32,885

How many crashes likely involve drivers talking on cell phones in 2010? 1.1 million

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Now, there were 32,885 people killed in MOTOR VEHICLE accidents, yet only 12,702 (2009) killed in Gun Accidents or Homicide.

If we consider that 21% of people killed in vehicles were the result of texting/cell use, that's: 6,906 people
If we use the 2009 status for Unintentional deaths by Gun, that's : 554 people

So, why aren't the democrats banning cell phones with calling ability or cell phones with texting plans - they kill 10 times more people, in accidents, than guns do in accidents - and vehicle accidents kill more than double the number of people than guns kill....