Legislation banning cell phone use while driving seems to be having the opposite effect: making the roads more dangerous.

This from a new report out of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

The report's author, Steve Lafleur, says the number of fatal collisions hit an all-time high in Manitoba last year, and the same numbers are showing up the United States.

He says people are simply disobeying the law, "Rather than doing what people would do in the absence of the law, which is holding the phone at eye level or ear level to make phone calls, they're holding it in their lap. Now there are few things as dangerous as taking your eyes off the streets repeatedly. It is, in effect, incentivizing people to be more dangerous."

He also thinks in many cases, crashes are up because current hands-free equipment can often be more cumbersome, and more dangerous to use, than simply holding a phone to your ear -- as is unfolding a large map across the steering wheel, which is also legal in most jurisdictions.

(pb july 13/12)