Hands-free Calls Lose Favour

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday July 30, 2005

James McCall. James McCall is chief executive officer of the Motor Traders' Association of NSW.

It could be only a matter of time before phone use by car drivers is outlawed. Hands-free calls are legal but a growing body of evidence suggests these pose as serious a safety risk as calls made on a mobile held by the driver.

A new study has found that hands-free mobile calls aren't necessarily safer than hand-held calls, which are illegal. Findings reaffirmed that people using a mobile phone while driving were four times more likely to be involved in a serious, potentially injury-causing crash.

The finding has implications for state governments that have legislated only against people holding their mobile while driving. In the US, the Governors Highway Safety Association has urged states that have not yet banned hand-held mobile calls by drivers to consider that hands-free may be as dangerous.

New evidence is accumulating that telephone conversations of any type also increase the risk of crashing.

A study published recently in the British Medical Journal, "Role of cellular phones in motor vehicle crashes resulting in hospital attendance" by S. McEvoy, found a fourfold increase in the risk of injury to drivers when they took part in phone calls. The study was conducted in Australia. Male and female drivers experienced about the same increase in risk from using a phone. And so did drivers older and younger than 30 and drivers using hand-held and hands-free phones.

Weather wasn't a factor in the crashes. Almost 75 per cent occurred in clear conditions.

Eighty-nine per cent of the crashes involved other vehicles. More than half of the injured drivers reported that their crashes occurred within 10 minutes of the start of the trip.

The study was conducted in Perth after a first attempt in the US was stymied by phone companies. Australia was favoured because it allowed the study to estimate crash risk in a jurisdiction where hand-held phone use is banned - it has been illegal while driving in Western Australia since July 2001.

Alarmingly, a third of the drivers said their calls had been placed on hand-held phones.

The results suggest that banning hand-held phone use will not necessarily enhance safety if drivers simply switch to hands-free phones. The risk of injury in a crash didn't differ from one type of phone use to the other.

The study didn't have sufficient data to compare the different types of hands-free phones, such as those that are voice activated.

In the past when researchers have tried to assess the effects of phone use on actual crashes, they have relied on police reports for information. But such reports are unreliable because, without witnesses, police cannot determine whether a crash involved a driver using a phone.

The new study gives an almost unadulterated picture that driver distraction, whether by hand-held or hands-free calls, may be a significant contributor to vehicle crashes.

© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

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