NU Online News Service, July 11, 4:58 p.m.EDT

Days after one group said it urged states to enforce lawsagainst cell phone use while driving, the National Highway TrafficSafety Administration (NHTSA) says programs in two cities resultedin a reduction in distracted driving as a result of a crack-down bylaw enforcement and a public-education campaign.

Programs in Syracuse, N.Y., and Hartford, Conn., used increasedpolice enforcement during a campaign named "Phone in One Hand,Ticket in the Other," as well as paid advertising and mediacoverage, to reduce the use of hand-held cell phones and textingwhile driving, says the NHTSA.

Police in these cities wrote more than 9,500 citations each fortalking or texting on cell phones while driving during theprograms, which were funded with $200,000 in federal funds and$100,000 in state funds.

The NHTSA says its researchers observed cell phone use beforeand after the programs. In Syracuse, hand-held cell phone use andtexting dropped by one-third. In Hartford, where the NHTSA says usewas far more rampant, hand-held cell phone use declined by 57percent and texting dropped by nearly three-quarters, theadministration says.

"These findings show that strong laws, combined with highlyvisible police enforcement, can significantly reduce dangeroustexting and cell phone use behind the wheel," says U.S.Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in a statement. "Based on theseresults, it is crystal clear that those who try to minimize thisdangerous behavior are making a serious error in judgment,especially when half a million people are injured and thousandsmore are killed [each year] in distracted-driving accidents."

The NHTSA says nearly 5,500 people died and 500,000 were injuredin 2009 from crashes involving a distracted driver.

Recently the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), which representsthe highway-safety offices of states, territories, the District ofColumbia and Puerto Rico, says it looked at 350 papers ondistracted driving published from 2000 to 2011 to come up with areport that advises states that do not have handheld bans to waituntil more research is done before passing laws.

However, the GHSA urges states with laws to enforce them inorder to accumulate data. The association is also in favor of banson hand-held cell phone use by novice drivers.

There is no evidence to indicate whether cell phone or textingbans have reduced automobile crashes, the GHSA says.

Nine states and the District of Columbia have banned allhand-held cell phone use while driving. The district and 34 stateshave passed laws prohibiting texting while behind the wheel.