Features

LOS ANGELES – A new statewide report detailing the impact of cell phones on car accidents has been delayed as the California Highway Patrol re-examines how the data was collected. 

The report, which was given to Gov. Gray Davis last week, has been returned to the CHP after the agency learned the numbers may have been too low, CHP Commissioner Dwight O. “Spike” Helmick told the Los Angeles Times in an article published Sunday. 

The reworked report will include data showing drivers using cell phones had been blamed for nearly seven times the number of accidents originally cited in the report. Helmick said. 

“We’re not changing any of our conclusions,” Helmick said. “It’s just adding additional data that might make it clearer for everybody.” 

The report, which has not been made public, was ordered last year by the Legislature to assist in a debate on whether the state should require handsfree cell phones. 

The report counted only 913 accidents in 2001 in which officers statewide indicated cell phone use was to blame. Three of those accidents involved fatalities, and 423 caused injuries. 

But a Times analysis of traffic accident data showed the total would be higher if the CHP included all accidents in which the driver responsible for the crash was using a cell phone. 

Helmick said officers began collecting these numbers in April 2001 at the urging of the Automobile Club of Southern California. These figures suggest at least 4,699 accidents could be blamed on drivers using cell phones.