Cell Phone Usage While Driving Can Be Dangerous
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released a study showing that drivers using phones are four times as likely to get into accidents with a high probability of injury.
The study was conducted in Western Australia, because US phone companies were not willing to release records. The study compared phone use within 10 minutes of an actual crash occurring. Between April 2002 and July 2004, the experience of approximately 500 drivers, all of whom received treatment in hospital emergency rooms for injuries sustained, served to verify 1997 research showing such phone usage was consistent with a fourfold increase in crashes involving property damage.
Several confounding factors were also found not to play a role including weather and the type of phone used (hands-free vs. hand-held). The study entitled, “Role of mobile phones in motor vehicle crashes resulting in hospital attendance: a case-crossover study” by Suzanne P. McEvoy et al. is published in the British Medical Journal.