On Sun, 16 Aug 2015 13:42:28 -0700, trader_4 wrote:

As I and others have said, it could be that other causes of accidents eg
drunk driving, have been going DOWN. We know the number of deaths due to
drunk driving have been cut by half. It's reasonable to assume that
there are also a lot more non-fatal accidents that have also been
eliminated. It could be changes in what gets reported and what
doesn't. Were the standards of reporting, the methods the same in all
states, over all those years? It seems the census folks have concerns
about something there, with the warning about year to year comparisons.

It could be a *lot* of things, I agree.
Hence the paradox.

I think nobody would disclaim that the cellphone ownership in the USA is
close to 100% of the drivers (it would be nice to have that statistic,
but, it must have skyrocketed in the past 10 years).

Also, nobody would say that cellphone use while driving makes you a
*better* driver.

Most of us (including me) would assume that cellphone use is yet another
distraction, so, it should make us *worse* drivers.

But, then, why don't the overall accident statistics show that?

Can it be that the declining number drunk driving accidents you speak of
*exactly* cancel out the precipitously inclining cellphone distracted
driving accidents?

It could happen. It might even be what *is* happening.
But it seems a bit too convenient to accept, without further proof.

The paradox (whether we like it or not) exists.

There is no precipitous spike in accident rates in the USA over the same
time period that cellphone ownership has grown precipitously.