THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 13, 1997 TAG: 9702130376
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES
LENGTH: 56 lines
Talking on a cellular telephone while driving quadruples the risk of having an accident, making it as dangerous as driving while drunk, Canadian scientists report today.
The first large study of the wireless phones, which now number 34 million in the United States, also found to the authors' surprise that so-called hands-free phones are no safer than conventional hand-held phones.
``This may indicate that the main factor . . . is a driver's limitations in attention rather than dexterity,'' said Dr. Donald A. Redelmeier of the University of Toronto.
But the good news, he added, is that if you do have an accident, the cell phone makes it much easier to get help.
Surprisingly, the authors of the report, which appears today in the New England Journal of Medicine, are not recommending bans on using the phones while driving.
``Our study is not about the role of regulation, but about the role of individual responsibility,'' Redelmeier said. ``Our role is to inform the debate (over cell phone safety), not to dominate the discussion.''
An editorial in the same journal by Dr. Malcolm Maclure of the Harvard School of Public Health and Dr. Murray Mittelman of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said that the research is ``the first direct evidence that the use of cellular telephones in cars contributes to roadway collisions.''
``No insurance company would be surprised by (the findings),'' added Steven Goldstein, director of public relations for the Insurance Information Institute, which represents several large insurance companies. ``Hand-held cell phones should not be used while you are driving any more than you should turn around while you are on the interstate to reprimand your child in the back seat,'' he said.
A spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association cautioned, however, that the study showed only an association between talking on the phone and accidents, not that talking on the phone actually causes accidents. But even CTIA cautioned against using the phones while driving.
``When you are behind the wheel, your most important responsibility is safe driving. Period,'' CTIA's Tim Ayers said. ``It is not using a phone, or drinking coffee, or reading a map or combing your hair.''
Redelmeier and statistician Robert J. Tibshirani studied 699 accidents in Toronto over a 14-month period in 1994 and 1995. None of the accidents involved serious injuries. In each case, they used telephone company records to determine whether the driver was using a cellular phone during or immediately before the accident.
Overall, the researchers found that people using a cellular phone were 4.3 times as likely to have an accident as other drivers. Those using hands-free phones were 5.9 times as likely to have an accident, but the number of such drivers was too small for the difference between accident rates using hands-free and hand-held phones to be statistically significant.
KEYWORDS: CELLULAR PHONE ACCIDENT