The National Safety Council is supporting a ban on cell phone use while driving across the United States, based on multiple studies that have shown not only the dangers of using handheld devices while driving, but also the distractions that hands-free devices can produce.
Janet Froetscher, in charge of the non-profit group, explained her position regarding cell phone use through studies and statistics. In recent years, it has been estimated that drivers using handheld devices are four times more likely to crash.
Furthermore, a more recent study by University of Utah researchers revealed that talking to a cell phone and driving at the same time has a negative effect on operating the vehicle, often leading to drifting on the side of the road. In addition to that, cell phone use also determined changes in speed, acceleration, and caused delayed reaction times in drivers.
The conclusion was that talking to a cell phone while driving can lead to reduced driver situation awareness and increase the perceived mental workload relative to no phone and adaptive cruise control conditions.
Researchers at the same University have also shown that young drivers are the most vulnerable to driving distractions, such as talking or texting on wireless phones, but also talking with passengers, eating or drinking.
However, they have also shown that talking to passengers is less distracting than cell phone use. While performing a test on the effects of cell phone use and of passenger conversation on the drivers’ ability to take exits, the researchers found that although in both cases the drivers were having a conversation, those talking on a cell phone almost always missed an exit, compared to drivers talking to a passenger, who almost always took the exit.
NSC’s Janet Froetscher reinforced the findings of these studies, and called for a ban on the use of hand-held or hands-free devices while driving. Froetscher mentioned statistics provided by the Harvard Center of Risk Analysis, according to which 6 percent of crashes are provoked by cell phone use. This means that in the United States alone, 636,000 crashes are taking place annually, resulting in 330,000 injuries and 2,600 deaths.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety revealed that banning handheld phone use alone will not necessarily increase safety if drivers start using hands-free devices.
As Froetscher explained, the use of cell phones (whether it’s handheld or hand-free) has a direct influence on the quality of driving, in the sense that the driver is ultimately distracted, by paying more attention to the conversation than to the road.
As researchers at the University of Utah have shown, talking to a passenger while driving is much safer because the passenger adds an additional pair of eyes on the road, and are more likely to draw attention on obstacles and exits.
