Wireless phones and driver safety

By: Drivers.com staff

Date: Thursday, 18. January 2007

Like any new technology, cell, or wireless phones bring with them a mixed bag of benefits and potential problems. Even as their use spreads like wildfire and people become addicted to their convenience, the negatives give rise to all kinds of warnings and calls for control. Wireless phones are being studied as a microwave-related health hazard, and also as a driving impairment which some are comparing to alcohol.

Early studies of cell phones as a cause of traffic crashes seemed to indicate a negative correlation-drivers who had wireless phones appeared to have less risk of crashing. But as the authors of one study point out, it's not easy to set up research on this relationship and studies can be easily thrown off by biases. For example, the earlier users of wireless phones in cars were likely to have been a different population from the norm.

Prior to the 1990s, say Canadian researchers Donald Redelmeier and Robert Tibshirani, "most mobile telephone users were young, intelligent, urban professionals who would otherwise be expected to have low collision rates and very safe driving patterns."

There may be other confounding factors too, say Redelmeier and Tibshirani. For instance, a 1985 study which found that mobile phone users had a significantly lower collision rate in the year following purchase of a wireless phone, could have been thrown off by a natural, year-to-year improvement in driving, or by purchase of the phone being related to a car crash. Drivers tend to have less risk of crashing in the year following a crash, and a car crash could stimulate the purchase of a wireless phone, they observed.

Having looked at all the possibilities, the two researchers finally fixed on a clever strategy-they studied 699 drivers who had mobile phones and who were involved in motor vehicle collisions resulting in substantial property damage but no personal injury. Each person's wireless phone calls on the day of the collision and during the previous week were analyzed through the use of detailed billing records. To narrow the study further, they looked at calls made during the 10 minutes preceding the collision and checked by comparing these calling patterns with a similar driving period the week before.

This research procedure allowed Redelmeier and Tibshirani to calculate that the use of a wireless phone during a period of driving raised the risk of having a collision by about four times. An account of their study was published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (1) in February, 1997.

Do we need laws?

There's no doubt that wireless phone use while driving is a distraction that reduces driving performance. Commonsense should be enough to verify this, although there are studies to back it up. For example, a 1995 study using simulators showed a 37% increase in drivers' reaction times, and that was using a hands-free mobile phone!

It's often argued that wireless phones are no worse than other distractions, but this isn't true. Conversing with a passenger is different in that the passenger is there in the car, knows what is going on, and can even help the driver watch out for traffic hazards. Even smoking while driving isn't as bad. Normally the driver is used to smoking and learns to manage it in relation to what's going on around the car.

The sudden ringing of the wireless phone is not just unexpected, it's more demanding. Phone calls are interactive and draw the driver's attention more aggressively away from the driving task.

Redelmeier and Tibshirani concluded from their studies that it is not the dexterity required to use a wireless phone that causes the crash-risk problem but the driver's ability to allocate attention. After all, hands-free phone use didn't seem to be any safer, although this might, they surmised, be related to a false sense of security on the part of the driver.

Drivers likely differ greatly in their ability to handle multiple tasks behind the wheel. Those who tend towards high concentration on one task may do so at increased risk from the traffic environment. Very little is known about this aspect of driving and human capability.

Nevertheless, the current concern over wireless phone-related crashes has pushed many jurisdictions into passing laws to control phone use while driving. Brazil, Israel, and Switzerland have banned wireless phone use while driving and many other jurisdictions are considering laws.

Will the laws be effective? Much depends on levels of enforcement, but, in the final analysis, it all comes down to the driver. It's up to the driver to decide whether to have a wireless phone (most will), whether to answer it while driving or make calls, and how to manage the calls once they are initiated.

In a 1999 study, Dr. Redelmeier and colleague Milton Weinstein looked at the cost effectiveness of laws on wireless phones (2). Adding up the cost of deaths, healthcare costs, and property damage they reckoned that regulating wireless phone use in driving would be less cost effective than other safety measures, but it may be justified, they added, because the benefits and harms of wireless phone use tend to involve more than just the individual who uses the phone.

References

(1) Donald A. Redelmeier, MD., and Robert J. Tibshirani, Ph.D.: Association between cellular-telephone calls and motor vehicle collisions. New England Journal of Medicine, 336:453-458 (Feb. 13) 1997.

(2) Donald A. Redelmeier, MD., Milton C. Weinstein, Ph.D.: Cost effectiveness of regulations against using a cellular telephone while driving. Medical Decision Making, Vol. 19., No. 1. Jan-Mar. 1999.

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