Study finds that vehicle crashes are four times higher when the driver is using a hand-held cell phone, even “hands-free” phones (not necessarily voice-activated)

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety sponsored a study on the safety of cell phone use in automobiles, published in July in the British Medical Journal. One of the most widely publicized results was that drivers are four times more likely to be in a crash that creates an injury when they are using cell phones. The results were obtained by comparing actual phone use within 10 minutes before an actual crash occurred with use by the same driver during the prior week. Subjects were drivers treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries suffered in crashes from April 2002 to July 2004. The study authors considered this method of analysis more reliable than past studies using accident reports where cell phone use was reported by the driver.

A further well-publicized result was that the use of “hands-free” phones did not improve safety. However, hands-free phones included any means of talking without holding the cell phone, so the results largely said that drivers can drive pretty well with one hand. Anne McCartt, Institute vice president for research and an author of the study, said, “This could be because the so-called hands-free phones that are in common use today aren't really hands-free. We didn't have sufficient data to compare the different types of hands-free phones, such as those that are fully voice-activated.”