About 9000 Norwegian car drivers who had recently reported an accident to their insurance company, responded to a postal questionnaire about mobile telephone use and other distractors during the latest accident. Mobile telephoning during the accident was reported by 0.66% of guilty drivers and 0.30% of innocent drivers. Mobile telephones were estimated to be used in 0.86% of the accidents, which is 72% higher than the expected proportion estimated on the basis of `induced exposure'. The number of accidents during telephoning was too low for significant differences between hands-free and hand-held telephones to appear. Rear-end collision is the most frequent accident type during telephoning. Both radios and CD players cause more accidents than the mobile telephone. (Author/publisher).
Abstract