| Calling time on mobiles |
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A recent article in New Scientist confirmed, in its own technical language, what many experienced motorists in the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) have long known - that the brain is capable of doing two things at once, but if they both require conscious attention there will be a price: you cannot necessarily do them as well together as you could separately. A case in point is the epidemic we are seeing on our streets every day - many drivers seem to think that it is safe to conduct a telephone conversation while driving a car. Great play has been made of the idea that "hands-free" phones allow drivers to safely use a mobile phone. This argument is literally brainless, because it completely ignores the fact that it is not just your hands that are involved in these activities. Your brain is used both to control a car and to conduct a telephone conversation. As a leading road safety organisation, we are often asked if using a phone is more dangerous than listening to the radio or talking to a passenger. Listening to the radio doesn't require me to participate in conversation when I need to attend to a road hazard. And many car passengers will pause in their speech - or their demands for a response - when they see that the driver needs to give full attention to the road. The caller at the other end of the phone, however, who is cheerfully oblivious of the driver's situation, might well make demands on the limited attention of the driver at a critical moment. And most drivers seem to find it difficult to be ruthless in interrupting their conversation when the road conditions demand it. The New Scientist listed strong evidence that phoning while driving is dangerous from Donald Redelmeier and Robert Tibshirani at the University of Toronto. This evidence has been promoted by the new Department for Transport (DfT), which has incorporated it into its 'Think!' campaign. It studied 699 car drivers who had been involved in a collision and who also owned a mobile phone. By scrutinising their phone bills, the drivers' statements and police records, they established that the risk of a collision when you're using a mobile phone is more than four times as high as when you're not (The New England Journal of Medicine, vol 336, p 453). For users of hands-free phones, the risk of collision appears, if anything, higher than for hand-held phones - nearly six times the level when not using a phone. Who knows, perhaps hands-free phones tempt drivers to carry on their call while carrying out more difficult manoeuvres?
Is that phone call so urgent that it's worth risking your life - let alone the lives of others? "Phoney drivers" are a major irritant and a road safety hazard. We should be gathering hard data about how many crashes are caused by drivers on mobile phones. STATS 19, the police road accident data sheet is the place to do this and we would like the police and the DfT to include these details where mobile phones have been a distraction leading to an accident. Our advice at the IAM is pragmatic - but puts road safety first. Never use a hand held phone when you are driving. Even if you have a hands-free system, you should avoid using the phone while driving as it distracts you from the main task. If you receive a call while driving only take the call if your "cockpit workload" at the time allows it, keep your conversation short and tell the caller that you can't talk at the moment. Then find somewhere safe and convenient to stop and return the call. Motorists can cut down the risk to themselves and to other road users by following these simple IAM guidelines on using mobile phones in vehicles:
Cars are not going away - and neither are mobile phones. It is only by educating drivers into the best way to manage both that we will start to change the 'phoney driver' culture. By Christopher Bullock, IAM Chief Executive
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