More research on cell phones causing crashes

More research on cell phone use in cars supports what early work has already indicated (including a seminal Canadian study in 1997), that people who use cell phones are a lot more likely to be involved in a crash, even when they're not actually on the phone.

According to a study done on drivers in Western Australia, drivers using phones are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves.

That finding would be alarming enough on its own, but it takes on extra resonance for other drivers since 89 percent of these crashes involved other vehicles.

Anne McCartt, the vice-president of research for the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) in the U.S. and an author of the study, says the "main finding of a four-fold increase in injury crash risk was consistent across groups of drivers. Male and female drivers experienced about the same increase in risk from using a phone. So did drivers older and younger than 30 and drivers using hand-held and hands-free phones."

The increased risk was estimated by comparing phone use within 10 minutes before an actual crash occurred with use by the same driver during the prior week. Subjects were drivers in the state of Western Australia treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries suffered in crashes from April 2002 to July 2004.

Researchers had wanted to do the study in the U.S., but cell phone service providers declined to give them access to their customers phone records even when the customers said it was alright."

The study, "Role of cellular phones in motor vehicle crashes resulting in hospital attendance" by S. McEvoy et al. is published in the British Medical Journal, available at bmj.com. Do a search using "Anne McCartt" as the author to find it.

The study notes that "most research on the safety implications of drivers' use of mobile phones has been experimental in design, involving small samples of volunteers. These studies have found that phone use impairs performance on simulated or instrumented driving tasks, using such measures as reaction time, variability of lane position and speed, following distance, and situational awareness."

The study also notes that other research has shown that "impairments have resulted from cognitive distractions whether drivers are using either hands-free or hand held phones. Studies also have reported effects of physical distraction from handling phones."

Weather wasn't a factor in the crashes of the 500 drivers who cooperated with the study, McCartt explains, as "almost 75 percent of which occurred in clear conditions," and more than half of the injured drivers reported that their crashes occurred within 10 minutes of the start of the trip.

Another reason for conducting the study in Australia was 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. Still one-third of the drivers said their calls had been placed on hand-held phones.

McCartt says the results "suggest that banning hand-held phone use won't necessarily enhance safety if drivers simply switch to hands-free phones. Injury crash risk didn't differ from one type of reported phone use to the other."