On July 1, the state government of California will begin implementing a new safety law that will help curb vehicle accidents caused by inattentive drivers who use their handsets or cellphones while on the road.

With the implementation of the new law, California has joined five other states such as New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Utah, Washington State, and the District of Columbia, which already have existing laws banning the use of hand-held cellphones while driving.

As a result, many people expect to see changes on the behavior of many motorists and hopefully, in the prosecution of drivers who caused fatal car accidents.

According to the California’s Cellphone Law, drivers will be required to use a hands-free device to attend to their calls while driving.

Those caught violating the law will be penalized at first offense while subsequent violations will cost , with no points against a drivers insurance. A companion law also bars drivers younger than 18 from using any type of cellphone, similar to restrictions in 16 other states.

While effects are yet to be seen, critics point out that the new safety law may hardly affect the behavior of some drivers who remain unfazed with the threat of the fine.

At the most, critics of the new law wanted an outright ban of cellphone use when driving. They argued that the risk of getting involved in a car accident is not the result of whether one or both hands of the driver are on the wheel, rather by the distraction or drivers inattention.

In an article in the Los Angeles Times, University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center researcher Arthur Goodwin said that the use of hands-free phone is equally risky.

According to research, the biggest danger is cognitive capture or being blind to driving cues because one is absorbed in conversations, especially emotional ones.

Hands-free laws have come to be seen as the most politically feasible way to address the dangers of driver distraction because of cellphone use.

Goodwin and other scientists say that hands-free laws could actually make things worse by encouraging drivers to make more or longer calls.

Even federal highway safety officials have warned against laws like Californias that allow hands-free calling as far back as 2003. In a letter sent to a top official of the agency, the officials said that: We are convinced that legislation forbidding the use of hand-held cellphones will not be effective. Such laws may erroneously imply that hands-free phones are safe to use while driving.

The letter was based on a lengthy review of worldwide research on driver distraction conducted at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a branch of the Department of Transportation. In the review, the agencys researchers had estimated fatalities linked to cellphone use by drivers, putting the toll at 955 deaths in 2002. They predicted that it would only rise because of the growing use of cellphones, especially such activities as text messaging.

In addition, other published research also has resulted in similar findings. A study by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis estimated that there are about 2,600 deaths and 12,000 serious to critical injuries a year in crashes involving drivers using cellphones.

Two widely cited studies found a greater crash risk for drivers using cellphones than for normal driving with nearly identical risks for hand-held and hands-free phones. The studies looked at drivers and collisions in Canada and Australia, where cellphone records were available for analysis, unlike the U.S.

Supporters of Californias hands-free law cite Highway Patrol statistics showing more accidents involving hand-held phones than hands-free, but the data are limited and not adjusted for the number of hand-held or hands-free phones in use.

Some of the largest U.S. corporations bar employees from using cellphones when driving during work hours, making no exception for hands-free calling. DuPont, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and its parent, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, with collectively hundreds of thousands of employees, are among those with cellphone bans.

AMEC, a large engineering concern, also prohibits its 7,000 employees in the U.S. and Canada from using cellphones while driving. There is no better way to proactively boost safety for a mobile, white-collar workforce, company spokesman John Kageorge said.

However, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, of 95 bills pending in 28 states that relate to cellular use by drivers, none would impose an all-out ban. Typically, the bills would prohibit talking by teenagers or school bus drivers, or require hands-free devices all measures the multibillion-dollar cellphone industry no longer opposes.

But with the increase in the use of cellular phone up to 73% of Americans at least occasionally use cellphones while driving, according to one survey what companies can do may be politically impossible for state legislatures.

In the meantime, we can only hope that the new law may finally be effective in its purpose.

Since the Apple has made cellphones which is usually used as means of communication into the ones that have many applied functions, platforms of intelligent cellphones have greatly increased with user interfaces, applied development tools and applications. For these advantages get together, there will be a much larger network for more and more people to communicate on matter in cars or at home.

Now, functions of cellphones are integrated into the auto entertainment systems which are widely used. There are several influences that intelligent cellphones have on autos. First is that it is connected with the car stereo by the bluetooth technique which is of great popularity at present. For example, there is more than 93% of cars equipped with bluetooth in America while 75& in Europe.

According to a survey, almost 100% of intelligent cellphones have bluetooth function.

Besides, intelligent cellphone has also become the main vehicle of auto digital music, it is connected by USB interface, bluetooth or auxiliary ports. Furthermore, navigation function has also been added as well to perfect auto features.

Influences are embodied in four aspects in cars by ways of digital music source, navigation, auto application and future stereo among which the last plays the key role.Terminal mode is an example for intelligent cellphones, it is displayed on the auto screen.

The possibility may exist that intelligent cellphones will become the platform of the auto stereo, and under this condition, it is consisted of interfaces which are made of human-machine interface and the other interfaces of the autos. Related chip is: 2SC1973.

Find More Cellphone Insurance Articles

In my 25 year experience as a cell phone audit professional, and from my telecom research, 99.9 percent of U.S. businesses that use wireless services do not need monthly cell phone insurance. So I urge you to strongly consider cutting wireless phone insurance from your budget and save some solid telecom expense today.

On average, the wireless carriers are charging anywhere from – per month per phone and making a killing on these charges, particularly for large companies who are forking this wasted cost out each month. Add the often required premiums when you lose or break your cell phone, and there are even more costs. And, the headaches and filing claims with the carrier is a huge time consuming and frustrating process.

It’s most often much cheaper to self-insure your wireless phones unless you have unusual kinds of usage or those users with butter fingers.

We’ve seen janitorial and maintenance type of workers take the insurance because their cell phones get beat up a lot or dropped in water due to the nature of their work. But even then, the telephone companies often won’t cover that type of damage if they open up the cell phone and its wet inside or clearly been abused. If you decide to keep the insurance, make sure you read the fine print on the cell phone insurance contract as to what damage and loss they actually cover.

My telecommunication audit company is so sure of advising our clients to cancel their cell phone insurance; we guarantee that we’ll cover half of the savings of the normal insurance costs if that threshold is exceeded once they actually cancel the insurance on our recommendation. In over 9 years of offering this savings guarantee, none of our clients out of several hundred have taken us up on the offer because they have not needed to.

The cell phone carriers aren’t stupid, they’re making a killing on these insurance premiums.

If you want to measure the cost of going without wireless device insurance, take a look at your last 8 months’ worth of wireless bills and/or ask your cell phone carrier to provide you with a report on past replaced phones for your company. Now compare that cost to what you are actually paying for 8 months of insurance on all of your wireless devices. Once you’ve determined your savings, show your boss the cost savings and get a huge pat on the back, or perhaps a nice raise or bonus! Saving money can be fun.

Also, make sure you have a corporate phone policy, particularly one that holds users accountable for damaged or lost phones. Another thing you can do is negotiate with your phone carrier for spare phones and replacements as part of the contract. The more wireless devices your company has, the more leverage you will have in asking for this incentive from the telecom provider.