Health News

Cell Phone Bans May Not Make Roads Safer

June 26, 2001 (Washington) -- New York is poised to become the first state to ban the use of handheld cell phones while driving, and legislation has been introduced in Congress that would place a federal ban on the devices while behind the wheel. But whether these legislative actions will actually result in safer highways is debatable.

The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association opposes cell phone bans and maintains the real problem is driver distraction, a spokesperson for the trade group tells WebMD. However, the group concedes that handheld cell phones may be a distraction themselves and recommends that drivers use a hands-free phone.

But it is possible that banning handheld phones could lead to more accidents because people may switch to hands-free devices and use them more. "It's an unknown," a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, tells WebMD. "That's why it's important to monitor the before and after ... to determine whether [legislation is] making the situation better or worse."

NHTSA, which has taken the position that drivers should not use handheld cell phones because of mounting evidence that suggests that they increase the risk of automobile accidents, has also stated that hands-free phones are not risk free.

A 1997 study in TheNew England Journal of Medicine, which found that hands-free phones are just as dangerous as handhelds, supports the notion that banning handheld phones may not make the roads safer. Both types of phones quadrupled the risk of a crash over and above a driver's normal distractions, such as fiddling with the radio or eating.

"Hands-free phones offer no large safety advantage," Donald Redelmeier, MD, the lead researcher involved with the 1997 study, tells WebMD. Redelmeier, who is a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, notes that he has conducted additional studies since 1997 and they have all supported the notion that hands-free phones pose the same risk as handheld devices.

Even though the science does not support banning handheld phones only, Redelmeier says, "From a practical perspective, it's the right way to go." This is because it's "so much easier to enforce legislation for handheld devices," and "once regulations are in place, it begins to change the public's attitude."

In response to concerns that a ban on handhelds will lead to increased use of hands-free devices while driving, Redelmeier says that hasn't been the case in the more than 20 countries that have banned the phones in cars, such as Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. "Some people switch [to hands-free phones] and some don't," he says, "but even those who switch are more mindful of the technology ... and start to decrease their utilization of it."

A study recently released by the American Automobile Association showed that cell phones ranked below outside objects, radios, and eating in terms of distractions to drivers. NHTSA tells WebMD that the study was based on sketchy data; people may deny that they were on the phone when they were involved in a crash even though phone records may show otherwise.