There is news today that by 2014 ‘every new car’ will be connected to the web. But at what cost in terms of road safety? What does experience tell us about how many road accidents are in some way related to the use of mobile phones?
For the UK, the official answer can be found in the DfT’s annual publication Reported Road Casualties GB. The latest edition of this exhaustive study of statistics concludes that in 2011 22 fatal accidents (1% of the total) the use of a mobile by a driver was a contributory factor. It was also a factor in 55 accidents where someone was seriously injured and 374 where there was a slight injury. These last two numbers are significant in absolute terms – in both cases someone was hurt, often badly – but when viewed as a percentage of these types of accidents they have been rounded down to zero.
Compare this with the situation in the US where the National Safety Council believes there is significant under-reporting of mobile-phone related incidents because police find it so hard to identify or prove use. The NSC estimates that the true picture is that some 24% of all crashes (involving injury and damage only) are related to talking on phones (21%) or texting (3%).
Is there a similar problem in the UK?
The contributory factor data comes from the completion by police officers of the so-called Stats19 form on which they are invited to give a cause (or partial cause) for an accident where they can find one. Perhaps the police in the UK face the same problems as their American counterparts.
It is worth noting that a 2009 observational study by the DfT showed that 1.4% of car drivers and 2.6% of van and lorry drivers were using hand-held mobiles at the wheel.
Of course, accidents might not just be the result of a driver using a mobile phone, pedestrians and cyclists also use phones.
There seems little dispute that the use of mobile phones at the wheel is dangerous – RAC Foundation research has demonstrated that texting at the wheel impairs drivers’ reaction times by over one-third (35 per cent), more than being at the legal drink-drive limit and driving under the influence of cannabis – and it has been illegal since 2003. The dangers however they are measured are real. The question remains – even though it will be possible for every new car to be connected to the Internet, is it really desirable. The road safety consequences our connected society will need to be carefully monitored
RAC Foundation Blog 