Abstract
Mobile phone use while driving is a major cause of driver distraction, affecting driving performance and increasing accident risk. Governments have responded to this with the implementation of legislation prohibiting the use of mobile phones, under specific conditions, mainly adopting the hands-free use. Still, mobile phone is a cause of several types of distraction rather than just manual. This study explores the effect of mobile phone use while driving via a simulator experiment. Participants drive under various types of mobile phone use mode- namely, handheld, hands-free (wired earphone), and speaker to capture this effect. Results highlight the effect of mobile phone use, regardless of the use mode, on driving behaviour through specific indicators: maximum driving speed, reaction time, and lateral position. In particular, considering the aforementioned parameters the handheld mode demonstrates safer driving behaviour compared to the speaker mode. The results of this study stress the need for a reconsideration of the present legislation.
Highlights
Mobile phone use while driving is a major cause of driver distraction, affecting driving performance and increasing accident risk
In Europe in most countries mobile phone use is permitted under the hands-free mode; that is, no handling of the device is allowed and the driver should not touch the mobile phone at any time
Maximum driving speed is reduced when talking on the mobile phone, with the handheld mode exhibiting the highest reduction, followed by the speaker mode
Summary
Mobile phone use while driving is a major cause of driver distraction, affecting driving performance and increasing accident risk. Greece follows the hands-free legislation, allowing mobile phone use only with Bluetooth or on speaker mode. According to traffic police data 24.127 violations of mobile phone use while driving were recorded in 2017 in Greece, comprising a proportion of 5,5% considering all recorded traffic code violations of that year. Still, this number is not representative of the actual number of drivers using their mobile phone in an illegal mode when driving; it is rather an indication of infrequent police monitoring. Distraction caused by mobile phone use while driving was responsible for 24% of the road accidents with casualties in 2017 (considering the accidents to which an identifiable driver error or violation was attributed), according to the Greek traffic police records
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