NEW YORK-The risks of using a cellular phone while driving “appear to be small compared to other daily risks, but are uncertain because existing research is limited and of uneven quality,” a new Harvard Center for Risk Analysis report concluded.
The Center, part of the Harvard University School of Public Health, Boston, released results last week of its analysis of risks, relative risks and benefits associated with wireless phone use. AT&T Wireless Services Inc. funded the study, which the university said “underwent a thorough peer review by 12 scientists, including the leading researchers in the field.”
To conduct the study, Harvard said its researchers reviewed “existing scientific data” and held their own focus groups with cellular phone users and emergency services personnel in Springfield, Mass., and Los Angeles.
The report estimated that a driver’s average risk of being killed while using a wireless phone is 6.4 per million in a year, or 80 percent less than the average risk of driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.10 percent.
The risk of a passenger, another motorist or pedestrian being killed by a driver who is using a cellular phone averages an estimated 1.5 in a million per year, or 92 percent less than the annual risk of being killed by a driver whose blood alcohol is anywhere above zero.
“While cellular phone use has grown 17-fold between 1990-1998, U.S. traffic fatalities have continued a steady decline that began more than 30 years ago,” the Harvard report said.
“The adverse effect of cellular phone use on traffic safety is not sufficiently large to be detected in overall counts of collisions and fatalities. … (However,) the estimated risk is uncertain because it is based on limited data and depends on a number of assumptions.”
Likewise, the Harvard Center said there has been little previous work done to “identify and assess the benefits of the use of cellular phones in motor vehicles.”
Participants in the focus groups cited more productive use of time, reduced number and length of car trips, the ability to contact emergency services and strengthened social networking as key advantages.
Focus group members who are public-safety professionals told the Harvard researchers that wireless telecommunications abet the apprehension of criminals, including drunk drivers, enhance receipt of useful information while they are in transit responding to emergencies and improve life-saving outcomes.
Rich Blasi, an AT&T spokesman, said it is not unusual for the carrier to commission independent research into aspects of its business.
“Here we are in an industry with questions about things like health effects and distracted driving. When you have an issue that needs to be resolved or that you have questions about, it’s helpful to get another read-out in addition to what is already out there,” he said.
In the introduction to the report’s executive summary, the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis noted at least four American cities have banned the use of handheld cellular phones while driving. New York City has outlawed the use of both handheld and hands-free cellular phones by taxi and car service drivers. Several other localities, including Suffolk County, N.Y., also are considering some kind of restrictions.
In addition, the introduction noted that at least eight countries-Australia, France, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland-have all restricted handheld phone use while driving.
“Although there is evidence that using a cellular phone while driving poses risks to both the driver and others, we conclude it may be premature to enact substantial restrictions at this time (because) we simply do not have enough reliable information on which to base reasonable policy,” the report said.
“Industry, government and academia should rapidly enhance the knowledge base on cellular phone use by motorists and, in the interim, should encourage more selective and prudent use of cellular phones while driving.”
A few days after release of the Harvard report, The Yankee Group, Boston, issued its own list of recommendations for promoting safe wireless phone use while driving. It said the wireless telecommunications industry should take a leading role in promoting education, particularly about situations in which it is unsafe to operate a motor vehicle and a mobile phone simultaneously.
“Rather than deflect the issue, let’s seize it as an industry, promote a common message and head this off at the pass before the industry gets a bad reputation,” The Yankee Group said.
The research organization also called for the aftermarket products sector to do a much better job of making commercially available car kits that “combine easy-to-reach controls and a good microphone with echo cancellation.” It also called on wireless sector participants to work with the automotive industry on improved incorporation of mobile-phone considerations into vehicle design.
Particularly as wireless data usage grows, The Yankee Group said the need will increase for integration of voice-recognition and text-to-speech technologies with “carrier offerings, messaging systems and car kits.”
