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 cellular phone makes it much easier to get help.
The report is of particular interest in Southern California, where cellular phones have become a near-ubiquitous hallmark of a culture that puts a premium on cars and technology.
There are an estimated 2 million cellular phone users in the market encompassing Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties, according to Steve Crosby, spokesman for LA Cellular, which serves about half those customers. Probably 250,000 to 300,000 of those users are in Orange County, Crosby said.
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 cellular 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 in Boston 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]," said Steven Goldstein, director of public relations for the Insurance Information Institute, which represents several large insurance companies. "Hand-held [cellular 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.
California Highway Patrol Sgt. Perry Selph, assigned to the agency's Westminster office, said any distraction while driving--trying to write or read, tending to a child or hunting for a radio station--can spell disaster on Southern California's congested byways.
