Cellular Phone Use While Driving: Risks and Benefits

This report assesses the risks and benefits associated with cellular phone use while driving. The interest of policymakers in this issue has been heightened by the recent decisions of selected foreign countries and several U.S. localities to restrict or prohibit the use of cellular phones while driving. The weight of the scientific evidence to date suggests that use of a cellular phone while driving does create safety risks for the driver and his/her passengers as well as other road users. The magnitude of these risks is uncertain but appears to be relatively low in probability compared to other risks in daily life. It is not clear whether hands-free cellular phone designs are significantly safer than hand-held designs, since it may be that conversation per se rather than dialing/handling is responsible for most of the attributable risk due to cellular phone use while driving. The benefits of using this communications device while driving appear to be important. They include benefits to the users, households, social networks, businesses, and communities. Many of these benefits, which include public health and safety considerations, have not yet been recognized or quantified. Simple suggestions that drivers can “pull over ” on the side of the roa