USING A hands-free mobile phone kit while driving can impair a driver’s ability and could result in prosecutions for dangerous or careless driving, according to the Department of Transport.
The departments comments come after a US study showed that 97.5 per cent of drivers were impaired in their driving performance while using a hands-free set.
However, there are no plans to ban the use of hands-free kits here while driving.
The research was carried out by the University of Utah on 200 drivers in a simulator. It showed that the drivers’ brake reaction times were 20 per cent slower, and that the distances at which the drivers followed other cars increased by 30 per cent as the participants failed to keep pace with simulated traffic while driving.
Only about 2.5 per cent showed no drop in driving performance while using the hands-free set.
However, the studys authors caution that while previous inquiries show that “a great many people” believe that the laws of attention do not apply to them, more than 97 per cent of those surveyed could not carry out both tasks – driving and using a hands-free phone set – “without incurring substantial costs in performance”.
One of the authors, David Strayer, who has been researching the use of mobile phones by drivers for the past decade, said that while the tests involved more complicated actions than general conversation, it still stood that the overwhelming majority of drivers are significantly hindered by the use of a hands-free kit.
“There is no safety advantage in using a hands-free kit in terms of road crash risk. Performed in a driving simulator the real road crash risk is exactly the same,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Transport said any kind of mobile phone usage hindered driving ability.
“Using a hands-free kit with your phone is not illegal, but it will stop you concentrating for a short time when you use your mobile phone and this puts other people using the road at risk. Many research studies have found the same results.”
She added: “Separately, you could be prosecuted for dangerous driving, careless driving or driving without due care and attention because of this and you could also have your licence endorsed or even lose your licence.”
However, she added that there were no plans at present to ban the use of hands-free kits.
A spokesman for the Road Safety Authority said there was “no mystery” that hands-free sets caused driver impairment.
Irish legislation bans drivers from using hand-held phones while driving. Last year there were 29,114 penalty points offences arising from driving while using a hand-held phone.