NEW YORK-Noting there is inadequate data available about the impact of cellular phone use on car crashes, a federal agency nevertheless said cell phone use does play a role in auto accidents, one that is likely to grow as more people use wireless phones and they gain added functionality.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Jan. 6 released its report, “An Investigation of the Safety Implications of Wireless Communications in Vehicles.” NHTSA’s mission is to study various aspects of road safety in order to prevent injury and death and reduce medical and other costs resulting from traffic accidents.
“The impetus for this review was the relatively large number of public, media and congressional inquiries to NHTSA about the safety of using cellular phones while driving,” the agency’s report said. “These inquiries generally were motivated by `close calls’ experienced or observed by the public and by crashes involving cellular telephone users that were reported to the media.”
Some of the potential hazards associated with cellular phone use represent the defects of its laudable quality as a safety tool, the agency said. For example, rubbernecking by people who continue to drive while phoning in an accident report to police can itself be the cause of motor vehicle collisions.
At the same time, hands-free driving laws, like those adopted in 10 countries but not the United States, don’t necessarily solve the safety problem associated with talking on the phone while driving, the agency report said. There are two vital driver behavior mechanisms-situational awareness and vehicle control. Manual dialing can disrupt both, but on-road studies show that hands-free voice communications may have a detrimental impact on driver situational awareness.
While commending the wireless industry for safety enhancements like hands-free kits and voice-activated dialing, the agency also said, “hands-free driving could increase the use of cellular telephones while driving and the duration of calls and may paradoxically therefore increase exposure to distraction-induced crash hazards,” the report said.
Citing Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association figures, NHTSA said the average wireless phone call in a car lasts just more than two minutes. The length of this activity distinguishes it from most other driver distractions, like turning on and tuning car radios, devices that were warned about in the 1940s as crash hazards, the transportation agency noted.
Coming ’round the bend is another potential driver distraction hazard of long duration-the use of wireless data devices like laptop computers, some of which drivers mount to the steering wheels, NHTSA said. Besides the obvious theoretical dangers of this type of multi-tasking, the agency said crash deployment of airbags with a computer as a projectile needs to be examined in future research.
The agency commended wireless carriers, manufacturers and industry associations for their efforts to educate the public about the potential dangers that inattentive driving causes and about ways to use wireless phones safely. However, it also said that federal, state and local governments in tandem with the insurance and wireless telecommunications industries should conduct better accident and behavioral research.
One of the most important goals of these efforts would be to identify better accident prevention techniques, including wireless user equipment design and placement inside automotive vehicles, it said. For example, NHTSA specifically cited the introduction of flip phones and the continuing miniaturization of wireless handsets as a potential problem.
These designs have poor in-vehicle reception because of internal antennas and make it harder for users to see the screen and manipulate the keypads, the agency report said. The design limitations of small handsets probably create difficulties for all drivers, it added, but also are likely to be even more troublesome for older drivers, whose senses, reflexes and ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously already is diminished with age.
“It was a great report,” said Tim Ayers, vice president for communications of the CTIA, Washington, D.C. “It’s good to put the information together comprehensively and good to see the NHTSA talk about the benefits and about the steps the wireless industry already is taking in terms of education to reduce risk.”
Jeff Cohen, public relations manager for the Personal Communications Industry Association, Alexandria, Va., said, “the NHTSA study is conclusive on only one point-that more driver safety research must be done by the government, and that those studies must include meaningful comparisons to other driver distractions that exist both inside and outside the vehicle.
