Surprises in study of car phone users

By GREGG WYCHERLEY

A study by a New Zealand university student claims to have disproved a long-held belief that hands-free speaker phones are safer for drivers than standard cellphones.

Massey postgraduate researcher Roland Matthews' controversial findings have appeared in New Scientist magazine and the international journal Accident Analysis and Prevention.

He found that drivers using hands-free cellphones fitted with earplugs suffered the least interference to their driving skills, but that standard cellphones were safer to use than those fitted with speakers.

Mr Matthews tested nine men and four women on their ability to understand pre-recorded spoken messages on a cellphone while driving on a country road.

He also tested which type of phone had the least impact on driving skills.

Mr Matthews sat in the passenger seat and recorded the drivers' answers to the pre-recorded messages and judged how they operated the cellphone.

When he assessed drivers on how well they understood the message, those using phones with external speakers fared worst and also became the most frustrated.

Drivers scored the highest comprehension results when speaking on phones with earplugs.

After the comprehension tests they were tested to assess which cellphones least affected driving skills.

Again, phones with earplugs showed the best results, although not using a cellphone at all gave drivers much better control of the car.

The research showed that the subjects did not find the physical demands of using a cellphone a big inconvenience on the open highway.