Using A Mobile Phone While Driving Poses No Crash Risk

A new study claims driving while talking a mobile phone causes no increased crash risk. This claim, by two academic from the London School of Economics and the University of Chicago, has caused outrage amongst road safety experts.

The study was based on mobile phone data from the United States. After isolating calls made solely from moving vehicles, they analysed the spike in phone use when cheap evening rates kicked in. they expected to see a rise in crashes, but were shocked to find none. From this they have concluded that the current belief, talking into a mobile phone while driving increases the risk of crashing by 400%, is wrong.

An explanation for this may be that when talking into a mobile phone drivers reduce their speed and up their concentration levels, as compensation for the perceived additional risk.

However, the study and the findings have been widely condemned with one critic pointing out that the rise in mobile phone use may have been due to passengers in the car and not the drivers.

Driving While Tired As Bad As Driving While Drunk

A study by Utrecht University in the Netherlands has shown that driving while tired can be as bad as driving while drunk. The study showed that after just two hours behind the wheel, drivers made the same mistakes they would if they had 0.05% blood alcohol content, which is more than half the UK legal drink drive limit. After three hours’ driving their performance corresponded to 0.08% blood alcohol content, the national limit. By four and a half hours, it was equivalent to 0.10%. Driver tiredness is thought to be responsible for 20% of road deaths in the UK.