- Drivers are four times more likely to crash when using
mobile phones, even if they use hands-free kits, experts say.
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- They reached their estimates by looking at the phone
bill records of 456 drivers needing hospital treatment after road crashes
in Perth, Australia.
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- In the UK it is illegal to use a hand-held mobile phone
while driving.
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- Safety campaigners say the University of Western Australia
study in the British Medical Journal shows the rules should apply to hands-free
phone use.
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- Crash comparisons
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- For each driver, the researchers assessed phone use
immediately before a crash and on trips at the same time of day 24 hours,
three days, and seven days before the crash for comparison.
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- We hope that the people who callously think that their
phone call is more important than somebody's life will get the message
eventually
- Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents spokesman
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- Mobile phone use in the 10 minutes before a crash was
associated with a four-fold increased likelihood of crashing.
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- This was irrespective of whether the driver was using
a hand-held or hands-free phone.
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- Similar results were found for the interval up to five
minutes before a crash.
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- Author Suzanne McEvoy and colleagues from the University
of Western Australia said: "More and more new vehicles are being equipped
with hands-free phone technology.
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- "Although this may lead to fewer hand-held phones
used while driving in the future, our research indicates that this may
not eliminate the risk.
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- Total ban
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- "Indeed, if this new technology increases mobile
phone use in cars, it could contribute to even more crashes."
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- A spokesman from the Royal Society for the Prevention
of Accidents said: "This is exactly what we have said and have known
for some time.
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- "We hope that the people who callously think that
their phone call is more important than somebody's life will get the message
eventually when they see more and more research like this."
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- He said the current ban on using hand-held mobiles while
driving, which can carry the penalty of a fine and in the future possibly
also up to three points on the driver's licence, should be extended to
hands-free phones.
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- However, the study authors said this would be difficult
to enforce.
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- They said a possible solution might be to change mobile
phones so that they cannot be used when vehicles are in motion, but added
that industry was unlikely to embrace this.
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- © BBC MMV
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/4672657.stm
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