On Sun, 16 Aug 2015 12:06:34 -0400, Dan Espen wrote:

That's not a paradox. A paradox would be "observed".
Since we _measured_ the impact of using a cell phone while driving, we
passed laws banning the practice and have embarked on an education
campaign to limit the use of cell phones while driving.

I know that anecdotes are not data, but I remember seeing lots of
drivers yakking away while driving. In the last few years,
not so much.

The paradox is that cellphone ownership skyrocketed in the past few years
in the USA, while accidents continued on the *same steady decline* that
they had been on for decades.

If cellphone use causes accidents, there are only these ways this could
happen.

1. Something else skyrocketed in the opposite direction exactly canceling
out the cellphone-use-related accidents (starting and finishing at the
exact same time periods), or,

2. Total accident figures in the USA suddenly became flawed only during
the exact period of skyrocketing cellphone ownership increases, or,

3. Nobody is *using* the cellphone while driving in the USA, or,

4. Cellphone use has no appreciable effect on accident rates in the USA.

Any one of those four would solve the paradox.
But, which of the four is it?