Cell Phone Use While Driving
Monday, September 26, 2005By HR Whatnot Staff
Studies across the globe have concluded that driving while using a cell phone is more dangerous than driving under the influence of alcohol. The studies show that even hands free devices are more dangerous than a drunk driver.
The UK's Transport Research Laboratory found that driving is impaired more by a phone conversation than from intoxication:
Results showed a clear trend for significantly poorer driving performance (speed control and response time) when using a hand-held phone in comparison to the other conditions. The best performance was for normal driving without phone conversations. Hands-free was better than hand-held.
Driving performance under the influence of alcohol was significantly worse than normal driving, yet better than driving while using a phone. Drivers also reported that it was easier to drive drunk than to drive while using a phone. It is concluded that driving behaviour is impaired more during a phone conversation than by having a blood alcohol level at the UK legal limit (80mg / 100ml).
The US's AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies concludes greater impairment from cell phone use than from intoxication:
We used a high-fidelity driving simulator to compare the performance of cell-phone drivers with drivers who were legally intoxicated from ethanol. When drivers were conversing on either a hand-held or hands-free cell-phone, their braking reactions were delayed and they were involved in more traffic accidents than when they were not conversing on the cell phone.
By contrast, when drivers were legally intoxicated they exhibited a more aggressive driving style, following closer to the vehicle immediately in front of them and applying more force while braking. When controlling for driving conditions and time on task, cell-phone drivers exhibited greater impairment than intoxicated drivers. The results have implications for legislation addressing driver distraction caused by cell phone conversations.
In Australia, researchers from the emergency department of Royal Melbourne Hospital have found that mobile users are more hazardous than drunken drivers:
Researchers found that drivers using hand-held mobile phones are four times as likely as other drivers to have a collision, double the risk of drivers who exceed the blood alcohol limit.
The risk of fatality increased ninefold when using a mobile phone - compared to drivers with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05 and 0.09, who are 11 times more likely to cause death than a sober, undistracted driver.
