Cellphone bans and fatal motor vehicle crash rates in the United States.

A number of states in the United States have laws restricting drivers from using cellphones. Using state-level panel data, we examined the effect of cellphone laws on fatal crashes in the United States between 2000 and 2010. Our results show that there is insufficient power to detect a reduction in overall fatal crash rates scaled by vehicle miles and population estimates. Cellphone bans, however, have significantly reduced the fatal crash rates of drivers in certain age cohorts. The effect was most pronounced among drivers between 18 and 34 years of age. We did not find any significant effect among drivers in the 55 and older age cohorts.