ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 13, 1997 TAG: 9702130030
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BOSTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
USING A CELL PHONE behind the wheel quadruples your chances of an accident, research has found.
Talking on a cellular phone behind the wheel is about as risky as driving almost legally drunk, a study found.
Using a car phone while driving quadruples the risk of an accident, researchers in Canada reported in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. And making a call with a hands-free model is just as dangerous.
While many people have assumed that the distraction of car phones can be dangerous, the study is the first to measure the hazard.
``I tell patients to avoid unnecessary calls, to keep the conversations brief and to suspend dialogue during hazardous roadway circumstances,'' said Dr. Donald Redelmeier, a researcher at Sunnybrook Health Science Center in North York, Ontario. ``Put the phone down for a while until things clear up.''
While the fourfold chance of getting into an accident is about the same as the increased risk involved in driving with a blood-alcohol level right at the legal limit, the researchers noted that callers' risk drops back to normal as soon as they hang up, while near-drunken drivers may be a menace for hours.
``I think this is probably something we all know in our gut,'' said Tim Ayers, vice president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association in Washington. ``When you're driving, you really have to keep your attention on the road.''
However, the organization also pointed out that the number of cell-phone subscribers in the United States grew 1,685 percent from 1986 to 1995 to 34million. During the same time, auto accidents fell 17 percent and fatalities dropped 26 percent.
The researchers studied 699 Toronto-area drivers who had cellular phones and were involved in crashes that resulted in substantial damage but no injuries. They compared each driver's phone calls on the day of the collision with the previous week's calls.
The analysis of 26,798 calls showed that having lots of experience with a cell phone - or using a hands-free model - didn't lower people's risk.
Redelmeier said the findings suggest that losing concentration - not fiddling with the phone itself - is what makes cellular telephone calls a highway hazard.
Brazil, Israel, Switzerland and two Australian states have passed laws against using hand-held phones while driving.
Redelmeier said his study does not suggest car phones should be banned. For one thing, they also have significant benefits. Indeed, 39 percent of the people in the study used their phones to dial 911 after their accidents.
Malcolm Maclure and Dr. Murray Mittleman, who developed the research method used by the Canadian team, calculated that if one in 10 vehicles has a cellular phone by the year 2000, between 0.6 percent and 1.2 percent of all accidents may be caused by their use.
``We don't know if using a car phone is causing the drivers to have an accident or whether they are just less likely to avoid collisions,'' said Mittleman, a physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. ``But there does seem to be an association.''
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