Cell Phone and Drivers

Date: Feb 21, 2005
Contributor: Lenore Zinke

Hands-Free Cell Phones Still A Problem

We have new information for those of you who like to drive and talk on the phone. A new study is out about cell phones and car accidents, and it's not all bad news for drivers.

Results are mixed in this study looking at the cell phone bills of people involved in car accidents. The study is in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers in Toronto studied 700 drivers involved in car crashes. The study looked at calls made on the day each driver crashed. They also surveyed all calls made the week before.

Researchers found drivers talking on cell phones are four times more likely to be in crashes than other drivers. They also found those hands-free devices don't necessarily make you any safer. In fact, the study shows no safety advantage to the hands-free units, but as we said before, some of the news is good.

39 percent of drivers were able to get help quickly after the accident. That's because they used their cell phones to call emergency workers just seconds after the accident.

It won't be long before we know more about cell phone/car accidents in the state of Iowa. Researchers at the Department of Transportation plan to release data this spring about what distracts drivers in an accident. Cell phones and lack of sleep are just a few of the distractions they are studying.



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