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National Safety Council Insists for No Calling While Driving Even Hands-Free or Texting

Maybe it is really a big deal to look at a research conducted by the Harvard Center of Risk Analysis. 636,000 crashes, 12,000 serious injuries and 2,600 deaths each year, plus a financial cost of $43 billion, the NSC said, citing the Harvard study. 6 percent of all crashes caused by using phone while driving.

Eighteen states have already banned on using phone while driving but all allow using hands-free. According to NSC, that is not enough to stop the increasing of accident caused by using phone.

"Hands-free laws are giving people a placebo, in effect," Ulczycki said. A law that allows people to make hands-free calls sends a message that this is safer, but research is beginning to indicate that it's not, because either kind of call distracts the driver from the road, he said. Laws allowing hands-free use may even increase the accident rate if drivers make more calls in the false belief that they are safe, Ulczycki added.

In responding to NSC, the mobile phone industry group CTIA opposed NSC that in some cases they need to use cellphone while driving.

[yahoo]