The number of drivers illegally using hand-held mobile phones has significantly risen in the past year, it was revealed last week. A survey by the Transport Research Laboratory found that more drivers were using mobiles at the wheel than three years ago, despite tougher penalties being introduced. In 2006, 2.6% of car drivers used hand-held phones. The following year — when the fine was doubled to £60 and three points could be put on offenders’ licences — that figure almost halved, to 1.4%. But since then the number has been rising, and according to the new survey 2.8% of car drivers now use mobiles illegally. The laboratory estimates that motorists are up to six times more likely to crash if holding their mobile phone while at the wheel.
WORST OFFENDERS
Young women are most likely to break law
The study recorded the behaviour of 14,000 car, taxi and van drivers at 33 points in London. The results showed that the most likely offenders were women aged 17-29. Among men, those aged 30-59 were most likely to be spotted on the phone at the wheel, while the group least likely to break the law were women over 60. Most likely to be on the phone illegally were van drivers, whose hand-held mobile use has more than doubled in the past two years, up from 1.8% to 4.5%. Official figures show that mobile phone use was a contributory factor in 646 of the 230,905 recorded traffic accidents that caused injury in the UK in 2008, including 16 in which somebody was killed.
SLOW RESPONSE
Distraction of conversation is worse than radio listening
Research published last year found that listening to a mobile phone reduced the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37%, with lower activity in the parts of the brain associated with spatial awareness, navigation and visual information. A 2001 study showed that while using both hand-held and hands-free phones dramatically slowed responses to traffic signals, listening to the radio had no significant impact. The study found that the act of engaging in conversation was so distracting that it in effect impaired the driver’s ability to see what was on the road ahead of him. Earlier this year, a Transport Research Laboratory study found the reactions of drivers using hands-free kits to be 30% slower than when they were drunk.
News Source :- http://technology.timesonline.co.uk
<< Back to news...