Hello?! Hello?!
Are you still there?
Hello?!
“Hands-free is just the
same as talking to a
passenger, and no-one’s
trying to stop us
doing that!
Hands-free use
The 2003 law, as we have seen, relates only to
handheld mobile phone use. But much research has
shown that there is little difference between handheld
and hands-free use in terms of the distraction they
cause¹. Both actions cause individuals to brake
inappropriately², swerve between lanes³ and otherwise
drive inappropriately 4 . It is the cognitive (mental)
distraction that interferes with the driving task, rather
than simply the physical act of ‘holding’ a phone 5 .
The real extent of hands-free use is unknown - it’s
technically legal so not really recorded, and it’s much
more difficult to observe than handheld use. When we
focus our activities on enforcing or educating about the
law, we risk pushing people towards hands-free mobile
phone use as a legal, though dangerous, alternative.
This means that we have to make sure that we educate
about distraction, rather than just educate about the
law.
¹ Strayer, D.L., Turrill, J., Cooper, J.M., Coleman, J.R., Medeiros-Ward, N. and Biondi, F., 2015. Assessing cognitive distraction in the automobile. Human factors,
57(8), pp.1300-1324.
² Haque, M.M. and Washington, S., 2015. The impact of mobile phone distraction on the braking behaviour of young drivers: a hazard-based duration model.
Transportation research part C: emerging technologies, 50, pp.13-27.
³ Owens, J.M., McLaughlin, S.B. and Sudweeks, J., 2011. Driver performance while text messaging using handheld and in-vehicle systems. Accident Analysis &
Prevention, 43(3), pp.939-947.
4
Horrey, W.J. and Wickens, C.D., 2006. Examining the impact of cell phone conversations on driving using meta-analytic techniques. Human factors, 48(1),
pp.196-205.
5
Burns, P.C., Parkes, A., Burton, S., Smith, R.K. and Burch, D., 2002. How Dangerous is Driving with a Mobile Phone?: Benchmarking the Impairment to Alcohol
(Vol. 547). TRL.
17