Use of mobile phones while driving has increased drastically during the last decade and concern has been raised on the traffic safety implications. This paper reviews relevant research literature on the impact on traffic safety by mobile phone use during driving. It is well documented that mobile phone impairs driving performance substantially. Mobile phone usage seems to be an increasing activity. There are no indications that increase in usage has peaked. There are great variations in usage rates among drivers. Drivers <35 years, drivers with high annual mileage and professional drivers have a higher usage. There are indications that men use mobile phone more than women. It has been found that mobile phone use increases accident risk by 10-600%. Accident studies have not established an increased occurrence of accidents by mobile phone use. This is largely because studies are both old and data is not collected systematically. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting