Hand-Held or Hands-Free, Cell Phones Stymie Drivers

SALT LAKE CITY -- New research investigating the impact of cellular phone use on automobile safety found that motorists can double their chances of missing traffic signals by chatting on the phone while they drive.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Utah, also found that the deleterious effect of mobile phones on the road was the same even when test subjects used hands-free devices.

The study used simulated driving conditions and found that cell phones appear to cause more distraction for a driver than listening to radio, an audio book or having a conversation with a passenger.

"This study adds new data to the ongoing national debate on driver distractions and their causes," Alan McMillan, president of the National Safety Council (NSC), said in a statement. "It underscores the importance of reiterating that a drivers primary obligation is to operate his or her motor vehicle safely."

The NCS, a nonprofit organization, is publishing the studys findings in the current issue of its Injury Insights newsletter.

The researchers, working on a larger project that will be summed up in a future issue of Psychological Science, enlisted 64 undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to one of four groups -- radio listeners, audio-book listeners, hand-held cell phone chatters and hands-free phone users.

The test subjects manned a joystick with a thumb-pressed "brake" and were asked to respond to simulated traffic lights on a computer screen.

Those talking with passengers or listening to radio or audio books showed almost no degradation in their performance, the researchers reported. The number of missed signals by cell-phone users was low, but it was double that of a control group that faced no distractions.

In addition, the researchers said, cell-phone users were often slower to respond to the signals that they did not miss.

"Our data suggest that legislative initiatives that restrict hand-held devices but permit hands-free devices are not likely to reduce interference from the phone conversation, because the interference is, in this case, due to central attentional processes," the researchers wrote. "We suggest that the cellular phone use disrupts performance by diverting attention to an engaging cognitive context other than the one immediately associated with driving."

The NSCs McMillan said the industry needs more research "to help us fully understand the public-policy implications of the growing use of cell phones and other electronic devices -- such as global positioning systems, faxes and computers -- in moving vehicles."

In a statement issued in response to the University of Utah findings, the head of a cell-phone industry trade group said education -- not new laws -- is needed to increase driver safety.

"The wireless industry has long held that education is the key to addressing the issue of driver distraction," said Tom Wheeler, president and chief executive officer of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA). "We must remind drivers that their primary responsibility is to drive safely and we must educate them on how to recognize when its appropriate to use a wireless phone, change a CD, or look at a map while driving."

John Moffat, chairman of the National Association of Governors Highway Safety Representatives, also said he didnt want the cell-phone safety debate to let other sources of driver distraction off the hook.

"In all these discussions, Im concerned that the focus on technology is overriding the fact that many crashes can be attributed to traditional distractions and not cell phones," Moffat said in a prepared statement. "The fact is that actions such as changing a CD, eating and reading while driving still contribute to many crashes even though much of the media attention has been on cell phones."

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, driver distraction is estimated to be a factor in 25 percent to 50 percent of highway collisions.

Steven Bonisteel, Newsbytes