Cell Phone Ban While Driving ‘Premature,’ Safety Official Says

The use of cellular phones in vehicles has become a “significant highway safety concern,” a top U.S. auto safety regulator told lawmakers Wednesday, but it would be premature to ban their use while driving.

“We believe it’s premature to push for federal legislation in this area,” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Executive Director Robert Shelton told the House Transportation Committee’s panel on highways and transit.

The role of cell phones in traffic accidents has been debated as the number of U.S. cell phone users has grown from a few hundred thousand in 1985 to 115 million today.

Shelton said NHTSA was gathering data on the range of distractions that can lead to crashes, including tuning a radio, eating, attending to a child, navigation systems and on-board computers that deliver e-mail and Internet data.

Based on a 1996 NHTSA study, he estimated that all kinds of driver distractions probably contributed to 20% to 30% of crashes.

Tom Wheeler, president and chief executive of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Assn., said wireless phones were the greatest safety tool on the highway since the emergency 911 telephone number was introduced, if used judiciously by drivers.

His group pointed to a University of North Carolina study of crashes in which just 1.5% of drivers cited a cell phone as the source of distraction leading to a crash.

But the study’s researchers have acknowledged that a reluctance by motorists to say truthfully what they were doing at the time of the accident could have skewed the results.