Are Hands-Free Cellphones Safe?

The risk of having an accident is about the same for drunken driving as for driving while talking on a cellphone, according to statistics on reported accidents, numerous experiments with simulators, and several real-world studies. And, it may not matter if the cellphone is hands-free or not.

For this reason, the National Safety Council (NSC), a consumer safety organization, is campaigning to the imposition of a total ban nationwide on the use of cell phones while driving.

Janet Froetscher, president and chief executive officer of the NSC, says “the science is really clear that driving while you are on your cell phone is highly risky.” Froetscher cites a number of studies that indicate drivers tend to focus their attention on their cell phone conversations or on text messaging instead of on their driving.

* The Harvard Center of Risk Analysis estimated in 2003 that about 6 percent of road crashes were due to cell phone use while driving. This translated into 330,000 injuries of which 12,000 were serious and 2,600 resulted in death.

* According to the Harvard team’s calculations, these crashes resulted in a cost of $43 billion annually. This cost was equivalent only to the dollar value of phone calls that would be lost if a ban were imposed. It did not try to estimate the medical and healthcare cost of people injured by the crashes.

*  In 2005, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reported that drivers using cell phones while driving had four times more risk of getting involved in a crash than drivers who did not use the phones. This risk is about the same as that for a legally drunk driver. The same conclusions were reached by a 1997 study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

* Ongoing studies at the University of Utah’s Applied Cognition Laboratory show that there is no difference in mental focus on the driving task between drivers using hand-held or hands-free cell phones. Paradoxically, the Utah researchers found that driving and talking with a passenger was a safer combination than driving and talking to a friend on the cell phone.

David Strayer, the director of the Utah research facility, said the problem with talking on the cell phone is not whether the driver’s hands are on the wheel. The real problem is the driver’s mental attention is not on the road.

The NSC has successfully lobbied for the adoption of laws on seat belts, child seats, and teenage driving. It acknowledges their call for a total ban on cell phone use while driving will be an uphill climb.

It will take long for people to become educated enough to realize that talking on the cell phone while driving is hazardous behavior.

Safety Tip:

* Minimize or, if you can, eliminate use of cell-phones while driving. Driver's inattention is the direct cause of 80 percent of all crashes.