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January 05, 2006
DRIVERS ON CELL PHONES A GROWING HAZARD ISSUE
A new NHTSA study has found that driver cell phone use increased in 2005, with 6 percent of drivers on hand-held phones in 2005 nationwide compared to 5 percent in 2004. This translates into 974,000 vehicles on the road at any given daylight moment being driven by someone on a hand-held phone, and an estimated 10 percent of vehicles in the typical daylight moment whose driver is using some type of phone, whether hand-held or hands-free. Use increases appeared especially large among younger drivers. The study also found that 0.2 percent of drivers were dialing phones, checking PDAs, or otherwise manipulating some hand-held device while driving.
The 10 percent daylight moment use increase figure was challenged by one leading newspaper as too low. In an editorial, the Toledo Blade said called the figure hard to believe. It said, Look around in traffic. It seems that everybody behind the wheel is on the phone - far more than one in 10 anyway. The Blade cited a study of cell-phone user involvement in road crashes, authored by IIHS researchers and published in July in the British Medical Journal. That study, 1st Evidence Of Effects Of Cell Phone Use On Injury Crashes, found that crash risk is four times higher when a driver is using a hand-held cell phone.
Posted by MVHAP at January 5, 2006 11:20 AM