WASHINGTON-The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is due to release a report next year on the safety of cellular phones in vehicles.
A preliminary draft of the one inch-thick report is under review, according to a source who’s seen the document.
Research to date is mixed on whether there is a correlation between mobile phone use and traffic accidents.
A report published earlier this year in the Accident Analysis and Prevention Journal found a relationship between phones and an increased risk of traffic accidents, according to the May 1996 Hansen Report on Automotive Electronics.
The newsletter pointed out, however, that initial NHTSA findings bore no such nexus. Stastistics indicate, in fact, that driver inattention generally is not a major cause of most fender benders, a NHTSA spokesman told the newsletter.
