Thus far New Jersey, New York and Washington D.C. have all implemented hands-free laws for drivers using cell phones. But a recent report in the Wall Street Journal indicates that these attempts at improving road safety may all be in vain.

First, says the Journal, a new study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) indicates that voice-activated dialing methods cause drivers to spend nearly twice as long “dialing” the phone number as old fashioned button-punching does. Second, a 2001 Norwegian study shows that drivers who use hands-free devices make more calls than drivers who use traditional cell phones. And third, a Swedish study states that drivers using hands-free devices drive even faster than other cell-phone using drivers while their braking response time remains the same as other cell phone users – up to 45 percent slower than for drivers who aren’t talking on the phone.

For the NHTSA, all of this research means that headsets and other hands-free devices are just as unsafe as any other type of cell phone. Jeffrey Runge, NHTSA’s administrator, finds that problematic. "The thing that disturbs me is that we have states and local municipalities making rules that basically give hands-free phones a free pass as being safe. That’s not good policy," Runge told the Wall Street Journal.

For Runge, research indicates that it’s not the “hands-on” approach to cell phone use that causes problems for drivers as much as it’s the human factors elements of driving while carrying on a phone conversation that creates the risk – the human brain, by nature, can only concentrate on so many activities at once which means some aspect of driver concentration has to give when talking on the phone.

Plus, according to the Wall Street Journal, approximately 40 percent of all cell phone minutes are used daily in the United States while talkers are behind the wheel. With the increased availability of in-car communications systems like General Motor’s On-Star, currently available in 90 percent of all GM vehicles, that number is only expected to increase.

Source: Wall Street Journal