Does hands-free cellphone make driving safer?

Since April 1, when Nova Scotia banned the use of cell phones while driving, sales of hands-free devices have skyrocketed. It seems that everyone who is driving or walking is using those electronic devices.

Conventional thinking assumes that they are safer. When wireless technology like Bluetooth becomes popular, you can still run a business, order pizza or talk to your mother while putting both hands on the steering wheel.

But is your mind really about the road? A Dalhousie PhD student in experimental psychology says hands-free phones are more insecure and even more dangerous than handhelds.

Researcher Yoko Ishigami of Killam presented his research 'Is handsfree phone safer than a cell phone?' at the National Conference of Canadian Traffic Safety Specialists held last month in Whistler, BC She won the first prize in a national student research competition.

Handsfree cell phones can make people too confident while driving.(Photo: Nick Pearce)

According to Ms. Ishigamin, an international student from Shizuoka, Japan 'Listening and speaking are not such complicated tasks, especially if you think ahead of what you will say. Conversation is what occupies all of our concentration. '

She surveyed the current scientific work on mobile phones, proving that talking on the phone, regardless of phone type, has a negative effect on activity, especially when driving in complicated situations. or without prior forecast. The effectiveness of using a hands-free phone rarely proves to be better than the handheld type.

Some works find that drivers compensate for the harmful effects of cell phones when using cell phones - by driving slower or stopping to end calls - but ignore them when using hands-free phones.

'People are often too confident with hands-free sets and drive faster. They think 'I'm fine because I wear headphones' while if they drive a cell phone, they often drive slower.'

Ms. Ishigami said that the topic of cellphone while driving was interesting to her since she was a psychology graduate student at Victoria University. She remembered what was about to cross the street when a car approached. Attaching her eyes to the driver, she continued to step forward, but had to jump back when she realized the driver didn't stop. This person is holding the phone to his ear and not even seeing her.

'When you talk to your phone, your mind goes to the conversation. You may be looking at everything but doesn't mean you are processing that information. '

A Canadian work that Ishigami saw through demonstrating that talking on a cell phone while driving increases the likelihood of causing accidents up to four times, and that handsets or hands-free phones are no different for that risk. Considering all studies, she concluded that all cell phones should be banned when driving.

Until now, Newfoundland, Labrador, Quebec and Nova Scotia in Canada, and California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Washington in the United States have banned mobile phones while driving. India is probably the only country in the world that prohibits both hands-free and hands-free phones while driving.

In Nova Scotia, penalties, including court costs, are just under $ 165 for the first offense. In Newfoundland and Labrador, the first state to enact a cellphone law in 2003, the fine can be as high as $ 400. Ontario is considering similar laws to prevent drivers from using mobile phones and BlackBerrys when behind the wheel.

'I think the trouble here is that hands-free devices are rarely banned, and actually encouraged.'

Psychologist Dalhouse Raymond Klein hopes lawmakers will pay attention to Ms. Ishigami's work. 'No one is surprised when driving while talking on mobile phones is dangerous. But discovering this danger does not decrease much, or decrease at all, by using hands-free phones, is new. It's not safe to think that 'we drive by hand' and therefore use them to do other activities (dialing, eating, etc.) is not safe. We drive with our minds . and the most important thing is that we focus entirely on driving. '